Cicadas: Case of the End Dreamer
by The Messenger Crow
Summary: 12 years have passed since the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, which left no known survivors. But now seemingly innocent bystanders wander into the village again and again, like lamb to a slaughter. And all the while a great conspiracy looms over them...
1. A Preface

**Right off the bat:**

I don't own Higurashi. Or Umineko. Otherwise the Kira OVA would not exist. Also note that the story gets really violent and gorey as it goes on, not to mention a few adult themes along the way (nothing really descriptive). This fic is rated M, after all.

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><p><em>When They Cry II, Part III<em>

**_Case of the End Dreamer_**

**A Preface/Disclaimer**

That which is known to you is not the same as that which the man next to you knows. You may think alike, but in the end what you know as fact will greatly differ from what he believes to be fact. There is only once source of truth- that is the source of deception. Objective truth is hidden away behind the veil of deceit that surrounds countless events throughout history. Subjective truth, the result of the veil of deceit being impossible to see through, is born through this way. This line of reasoning leads one to think that subjective truth is a liability in its very nature. However, this is not the case.

Subjective truth and objective truth are two sides of the same coin- one cannot exist without the other. But the only way objective truth can truly be reached is from the source of the subjective truth. By the source of this truth, the truth becomes distinguishable from the lies. But in reality, the source of the subjective truth leads to another source, and from there hundreds upon hundreds of other sources, making the one true source- the objective truth- nearly indistinguishable.

So where does objective truth, the one single truth, lie? Facts present themselves to stimulate the subjective truth and hide the objective truth. But the one source of objective truth is in fact something that in most cases is unable to be reached- the setting. The point in time where facts are born. The crime scene. Such is the nature of truth. But in a world of closed time such as this one, where when the cicadas cry there are no survivors, where is objective truth?

_In Conclusion:_

In such a place where a cat box can form, it is simple to say that the truth will never be revealed. Such is the nature of the sealed truth- it has but one source, with one common lie to surround it- to shut up the goats, if you will. And that lie is told and retold, and twisted by the various goats who attempt to ascertain the ungraspable true form into what becomes subjective truth.

And that source has been lost for all eternity, never to be revealed. No matter how many fragments you travel, the result will be the same. 1,000,000 out of 1,000,000 times the truth cannot be reached. That is its nature- to remain hidden for all eternity, so that none may ascertain its true form. So seeking it is futile. Without a miracle, 1,000,000 will remain 1,000,000. But if a miracle was to occur, and 1,000,000 became 999,999, perhaps then it would finally be possible.

But sadly, such miracles are few and far between, and despite the implications that a miracle would be bestowed upon this story are purely there to toy with the reader. Therefore, you have been presented this tale instead, and so you should accept the musings of this user-defined alternative.

But let it be known: The forces behind this tale in no way possess ownership over the pieces involved in the Great Hinamizawa Disaster, or any of the factors related to it. They are simply using them to their own benefit. Know that this tale will not be a pleasant one in the slightest.

Welcome back to Hinamizawa. This will be your last visit.

_~Preface written by Frederica Bernkastel, Witch of the Court_

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><p><strong><em>Author's Note:<em>**

Hooray, earliest lengthy author's note in history. As much as this annoys me (just as it annoys some of you), I figured I couldn't really leave this out. Before I go any further, I want to set up the format that this story will be written in. It's a tad different from the usual chapter progression, so please read the following:

The story is broken up into three different pieces of storytelling:

**"Reports" **(See the Next Chapter)

**Major Stories **(Marked with a roman numeral) (WILL consist of OCs, and OC pairings- except not really in some cases)

**Side Stories **(should not be ignored despite being minor)

The story flow will go something like this:

Report, Major Story, Report, Three Side Stories, Report, Major Story, Report

And from there will repeat.

Along with this chapter, I will post up to and including the first major story and then wait on a decent amount of reader feedback before moving on. Because otherwise you'd just have this really cryptic preface and this long author's note to base your opinions off of.


	2. Bio Study Observation 01

**Bio-Study-Observation 01 : Subject ACER-0138234691**

It has come to my attention that our most recent find has proven to be quite possibly the most interesting subject I have ever beheld with my own eyes. It isn't due to his inhuman threshold for pain. It isn't due to his lack of nerve reaction despite having his arm cut open. It isn't any such aspect that makes this subject so interesting. It is simply the fact that he survived. He survived the deaths of hundreds and successfully lived on nothing more than a heavy concentration of sheer force of will. He had somehow escaped that horrid incident with his life- but not with his memory. He is a mere shell of a man, one who has clearly lost everything he held dear in that accursed occurrence of the month of June.

After looking into our sudden arrival, I learned that he had been located nearly eleven years ago along the bank of the river that once ran through Hinamizawa, the village in question- about a year after the incident had occurred. He'd been placed in stasis for those eleven years and now that his condition finally stabilized to the point where he was operate-able we were handed him to determine the source of his 'physical ailments'- a front for determining how he survived the disaster.

We opened him up to determine what the cause of his heavy breathing was. It turned out he had literally about a liter of blood left in his bloodstream. We weren't sure how it was physically possible, but it was true. We didn't know how such a pivotal fact got past the initial staff that had control of the body. We weren't even sure if he was human, for god's sake. He surely didn't seem like it.

We woke him in the morning. He could react to stimuli, but that was about it. We tried to assess his motor skill functionality- he could do little more than spin his arms in circles. Whether it be the trauma of that incident or the severe and simply unexplainable loss of blood he couldn't have possibly lived off of so little for so long. We began to doubt if he was even alive at this point. But we decided to place him in a state of drug induced sleep. We would keep him comatose until his brain could properly function again.

We'd heard the rumors, of course. Everyone did. It was a topic of importance in general. Everyone had heard about the mass murder of an entire village at the hands of their own self created god. None of us bought it, of course, being scientifically inclined due to our field of work. But the rest of the country- it was a talk of much concern. To make matters worse, cases of the supposed Hinamizawa Syndrome that had reportedly been the primary cause for the destruction of the village began to appear all over the nation. People that had moved out of the village prior to the incident all suddenly fell ill, thus determining the strength of the syndrome as a "contagious airborne virus" and afterward the quarantine of nearly five hundred people _and_ their syndrome-free family members. Of course, this situation was cleared up and it was determined that the syndrome was applicable to only residents of Hinamizawa.

This man was both a resident of Hinamizawa- assumedly since he was found _in _Hinamizawa- and a victim of the disaster. Yet he was _still alive_. It was a complete miracle to begin with, and it only became more miraculous once we discovered that he had shown no signs of the syndrome. We thus moved the importance of this project to the top- we would keep this man alive for as long as possible. It was a mutual agreement amongst the lab members. We could admit him to a regular hospital in a matter of weeks at the rate we were going.

About four weeks in he spoke. It was so unnerving that I nearly fainted. All he said was four syllables, but four syllables that mean more than a thousand words.

"So-no-za-ki…"

Of course we didn't know at the time what that name meant. But upon investigating the incident in further detail we determined that "Sonozaki" was the name of a branching yakuza family that had broken from the mob years ago. Furthermore "Sonozaki" was the name of the family that led the strike against the dam builder project that would have destroyed the village if completed. Needless to say this incident ended in tragedy. And the Sonozaki family was most likely behind it- and possibly the recent disaster as well. We needed more information- and we had only one source.

Week 5 was the first week he became truly self aware. He asked where he was. Aria, the nurse watching him at the time, was almost unable to reply. After the ordeal I asked her about the details of their conversation. She told me that all he had wanted to know was whether or not the cicadas were still crying. He was a bit more specific- the Higurashi, he called them. They were cicadas that continued to remain active after twilight- and well into the night at that.

The next day I spoke to him myself. His voice, just like his eyes, was empty. It was as if he weren't even alive and he simply just existed…A likely case indeed. I determined that he was suffering from a severe case of amnesia. It appeared that he could only recall that sound- and that name, "Sonozaki." I told him about what we knew. He didn't react to anything. We needed more information on the Sonozaki family in order to get some sort of stimulus going- all we had was the family name and evidence of their Yakuza connection.

Of course, leave it to Mido and Aria, the two members on this study team that I happen to be closest to, to pull up a few names in a matter of hours- from some random occult website, no less. Of course, the internet was still in its infancy, but people who could work around the limited servers and such- like my two associates- could find anything. There were names of family members, but the only two that stood out were the names of the two youngest members of the family and their parents.

Mion Sonozaki, Shion Sonozaki-

I didn't even need to finish reading the list before he let out a pained gasp. Visually, it appeared that he had begun to sweat profusely and was shaking ever so slightly. It seemed that the name "Shion" left an impression on him. He couldn't recall why, but that name caused a great pain in his chest. Eventually it came to the point where he started to babble incoherently and eventually we had to knock him out again. It was most likely an infant stage of the syndrome. Of course, roughly twelve years after that incident, we have measures to counter the syndrome if it ever arose. It was most likely that further investigating this Shion person would render results. Of course, as I had been expecting, there was literally no information on her. Not even the occult fanatics running the syndrome scare knew anything about her. After all, Hinamizawa was just some obscure village- not even a town- hidden from the eyes of the public.

The rate at which he progressed afterward was astounding. He managed to produce a few more interesting memories for us after much work on attempting to trigger any potential flags: he spoke of a gathering of demons and a sea of cotton. These were most likely references to the ritualistic practices of the village- which we had more or less no intelligence on. Again, without speaking with a resident- which was nearly impossible given how most have kept their identities private and those that did not have died out due to the syndrome. However, Aria's protégé nurse from the precinct's infirmary, Saika, managed to elaborate from _memory_ the details of the so called "cotton-drifting" ritual that she had read in an article. Kids these days keep getting more and more specialized (or as I prefer to say engrossed) in this sort of stuff. She determined that the memories most likely came from the days prior to the incident, as the last ritual occurred shortly before the incident.

Beyond that we still have no idea, but as of the time that this record is being written our subject has become significantly weaker than he was when we woke him. We assume that the drug induced sleep managed to help rehabilitate his dying body if only for a short period of time. We're going to need a serious blood transfusion, but I really don't have any idea who would have that much blood up for donation, or if anyone on record or in stock matched his type. We just have to wait and see.

**Report End**

**Please Turn to Page 4  
><strong>


	3. I: Lunatic Moon Chapter

**Lunatic Moon Chapter **

_We regret to inform you that the story planned for today has been replaced with something far more dire and twisted. In the event that the original story is ever re-located this story shall be completely disregarded as pure fiction. We apologize for the inconvenience.  
><em>_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

**_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (bolded character gets the perspective):  
><em>**_Ayame _Yamashita (Age 20, Hair: Short Brown; Eyes Brown)  
>Akihito Shishio (Age 18, Hair: Short, Black; Eyes Red)<br>Miyumi Satonaka (Age 16, Hair: Long, Black; Eyes Green)  
>Hatsune Edogawa (Age 15, Hair: Shoulder Length, Black; Eyes Blue)<br>**Rai Sumidera** (Age 17, Hair: Spiked, Blonde; Eyes Blue)

_The Situation is as follows:  
><em>Hinamizawa was wiped out due to a natural gas leak that occurred north of the village. There were unfortunately no discovered survivors. The majority of the bodies were found inside the public schoolhouse, where the victims most likely fled to in order to save themselves. Twelve years later public interest in the village has nearly skyrocketed and a group of students along with an elder decide to search the village to bring an end to the rumors of Hinamizawa by determining the truth of the incident.

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><p>Morning came, and we were all asleep as in the same room. I'd been planning this whole excursion for the last four months along with Ayame-san and Aki. Miyumi and Hatsune were more or less along for the ride and Hatsune's cousins Shugo and Ayatane were essentially free-loading, simply wanting something to do. We had all been at Ayame-san's house that night, preparing the final tidbit before the excursion- the infamous boxed lunches. I didn't approve. Miyumi didn't like the idea herself, but the rest were definitely up for it. I later discovered that it was just Ayame-san's way to relieve the tension of traveling into an incredibly dangerous place in search of something as absurd as "truth."<p>

But first more about this pack of misfits. Being someone named Rai implies that you're some sort of badass. That couldn't be any further from the truth. All I really care about is doing the reasonable thing- let me be clear, I didn't say the _right_ thing. The reasonable thing and the right thing are entirely different things that should never be confused. When people confuse them, they usually end up calling me a hypocrite. Hell, Hatsune had her own little version of that as well.

Speaking of Hatsune, she was more or less just a young girl who wanted to stick by her best friend Miyumi. I swear, the two were inseparable, but they had literally _nothing _in common. What with Miyumi being the closest thing to a man that a woman could get and Hatsune being the exact opposite. Hatsune's in for this ride just because she's worried about something terrible happening to Miyumi. Can't say I blame her, though.

Miyumi on the other had is just in it for…Well, I couldn't really tell you at this point. Not after what happened a few nights ago. But before that, you need to know that Miyumi is a tad bit insane. I mean that as seriously as I said it. Miyumi will do whatever the hell she wants however the hell she wants to. Thank god that she's good natured or else I'd probably have strangled her by now.

…Which brings me to Aki. The cold hearted asshat who actually isn't cold hearted or an asshat. He's a prime example of someone who likes to keep a certain outward image while only letting the people he determines worthy of his "condolences" (his black-and-grey way of saying friendship) see what he's really like. He'd still kill you if you looked at him the wrong way though. It probably has to do with the fact that he was caught in a nasty gang war a few years ago. He wasn't even on any side- he just flew at whoever he could get his hands on. But since then he's become a bit more normal.

Ayame-san needs no introduction. You'd naturally see a motherly figure like her anywhere you looked. But she_ is _a bit different. Unlike me she abandons reason entirely and just goes with what she believes is right. She's decided to help us out simply because she believes that we can actually achieve something.

As for why we've decided to go off on this trek into unknown territory? Let's just say that the people of that village did us a favor. And now that we're going to set their tale straight by going deep into their territory and figuring out exactly what happened there. Twelve years too late, but we've decided to search the place for anything that might've been left unturned. But really, a natural gas explosion? What kind of explanation is that? One that some police officer threw together right on the spot, I'm sure.

But this story doesn't really start here. It starts quite awhile back.

It was the morning after I brought it up right before homeroom. I'd simply said "Hey, let's go to Hinamizawa." They gave me some weird looks but I shortly explained myself, saying that maybe we could figure out what really happened there. They eventually agreed with me, and the plan was set in motion.

This was the morning when Hatsune agreed to join us. Miyumi was a bit baffled as to why Hatsune, who wasn't even strictly a 'regular' (as we had denoted ourselves) had wanted to get involved. But she consented to it after a short period of time.

Miyumi and I were in the same classes for most of the day. She walked into the room and sat herself next to me. She didn't look too happy.

"Mornin'."

"Didn't we already have this conversation?"

"Yeah, but I didn't have a massive headache before, so don't blame me if I forget."

"You eat something you shouldn't have?"

"You're implying that I stuff foreign crap in my mouth?" Miyumi had a relatively strange hatred for food from foreign countries- especially America. She wasn't even sure why. Neither were her parents, from what I've heard about them from Miyumi.

I decided to keep the gag going. "You'd eat anything if you really had to."

"Anything, huh?" Her voice was too drained to come off as anything but laughable.

"Hell, I could stuff a needle in your favorite rice ball and you'd probably still eat it."

"A needle? Why the hell would you'd put a needle in someone's food?"

"To kill them and/or play a really sick gag on them."

"H-Hey, you'd never pull something like that, would you?"

"Of course not. When did I ever say I would?"

"Then don't make jokes about it!" She tried to sound angry, but she just came off a mildly irritating. She went back to groaning and rubbing her temples to soothe the pain.

After a few minutes she spoke up again. "You sure you want to go snooping around that place?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. After all, the Watchers need something to do with themselves, don't we?" She was a bit surprised I used our little groups name so casually. It wasn't all that impressive that we had our own sort of gang that was a bit outside the norm of school clubs- not that we did anything bad, per say. Everyone going on the excursion was involved in some way.

"Well, maybe you're right. Maybe we do need something to do. Sitting around and watching things happen is a bit boring."

"See? I've got everything under control. As long as we can get the plan in motion we'll be fine. Don't worry so much."

"If you say so…" She decided to sleep for a bit on that note. She was certainly more tired than I'd ever seen her. But it seemed that she wanted to say something else.

Miyumi's always been a bit distant. From the first time I'd spoken to her she'd been a bit defensive. Things have improved in the two years since then, but you get the idea. She's never so much as mentioned her parents at all. She's rarely talked about what she does outside of group meetings and I almost never find her on the streets talking to anyone but one of the regulars. It was a bit odd, but I decided to let it go for as long as I could. She seemed to notice this and was probably grateful for it.

The day went by without a hitch. The club wouldn't be meeting today given how the supervisor, Ayame-san, was out sick that day. She happens to be the school's secretary nurse, whatever that means. On the way home, Miyumi decided to join me along with Hatsune. Hatsune was notably concerned with their decision to go on the excursion to Hinamizawa, but she wouldn't back down if Miyumi was going.

"You're really sure you want to go, Hatsune-chan?"

She nodded vigorously, trying to imply that she wasn't nervous even though she was. "If you're going then I'm going. That's that."

"It'll be scarier than you could imagine, though." I decided to try to get her to back out of fear.

"I'll be fine. I'm going, and I'm not taking no for an answer." She sounded as confident as she could be. When it came to protecting Miyumi there was nothing that could deter her.

"He's telling the truth. There are all kinds of freaky stuff. You know, the usual ghost story stuff."

"I don't care. If you're going to put yourself through something like that then I'll do it too."

"Eh….You're making this too hard." Miyumi complained.

"She's not going to back down. I'd save your energy." I pointed out.

"Meh, you have a point."

A few minutes passed and Hatsune suddenly spoke up.

"I-If it makes it any better, I'll….I'll join your gang!" I sort of stood there dumbfounded, while Miyumi sighed.

"Gang? What the hell have you been telling her about our group?" I yelled at her.

"N-nothing bad or anything! I just sort of…exaggerated what goes on in club a bit to make it sound cool."

"Exaggerated? She thinks you're in some sort of drug ring!"

"O-Of course she doesn't! Y-You don't, right?" She turned to Hatsune who slowly shook her head. "See? There. That's all the proof you should need."

"Just don't go running your mouth anymore, alright? We don't need any more bad influence around here."

"Yeah, I know." She rubbed the back of her head before something suddenly clicked in her head. "So she can join right?"

"….If she really wants to."

"There. So you're welcome to join our ga-club, I mean."

Hatsune nodded her head again. She was somewhat weirded out by how ridiculous the last several minutes had been. She wasn't sure how we could be so casual around each other, let alone start screaming at the top of our lungs.

"A-Anyway, I've got to be going. I'm heading home this way."

"Oh, right. See-ya, Hatsune-chan!" Miyumi energetically waved to her and once she was out of earshot she sighed. That's right- she had a headache this morning. "God, I'm beat."

"Then you should get to bed. Go on ahead of me."

"Eh, about that…Can I sorta just hang out with you for the rest of the day?" Miyumi almost looked embarrassed. This had been a common occurrence over the last several days. She had literally nothing to do after school and so she followed me around out of sheer boredom, although recently she's been doing it just because it feels normal to her.

"Suit yourself. Just don't pass out or anything, alright?"

"Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." She tried to feign an assuring expression.

The next three hours were more or less spent doing random crap around town. Miyumi had me buy her dinner though, which at first I had thought wasn't all that good an idea but when it turned out that all she wanted was a sandwich I agreed to it. By the time the sun had gone down completely we'd just left an arcade. I had a surprisingly decent amount of fun destroying her in Golden Symphony X around seven times. Although she was always good at these sorts of games…well, any sort of game, really. It was probably just because she'd had a headache all day.

"You really are sick, aren't you?"

"Didn't I already tell you? My head is killing me."

"Then why come out here today?"

"Well…It's boring as hell no matter where I go, so I figured I'd hang around you for awhile."

"Don't your parents ever wonder where you go?"

"They're never home anyways. If I ever got stranded somewhere they'd probably never even try to look for me."

"That's a bit overboard, don't you think?"

"That's what you think." She sounded a bit emotionless.

"….In any event, I'll walk you home this time."

"What?" She was genuinely surprised by my gesture.

"I wouldn't want you fainting in the middle of the street, now would I?" I was still in a good mood. Hopefully she didn't ruin it.

"You know how far off my house is from yours, right? You'd be home by like tomorrow morning." She was quite obviously against the gesture.

"I have ways around that. You don't need to worry. Just let me do it; hell, I won't even walk you the whole way if you really don't want me to."

"Alright, if you're going to keep insisting on it." She didn't say a word after that.

On the way towards her house, Miyumi started to display some sort of anxiety that she hadn't shown before. She was genuinely scared of something, although I had no idea what it was that she was so worried about. Was bringing her home like this so frightening to her?

In the end she didn't speak a single word until we reached the pathway that led to her home. Needless to say that the area in general was pretty depressing. The path was mostly obscured by trees and moss that made it seem that no one had lived here in years. Why there hadn't been any sort of cleanup up to this point was beyond me. After all, Miyumi _did_ live here.

"Nice place you've got here." I decided to keep up appearances.

She smiled somewhat sadly. "You're an asshole, you know that?"

"I only try my best."

"Anyway, I've got to get to bed. My heads acting up again…" She rubs her head as she says this. Whether it was her attempt to get me out of the way as soon as possible or not wasn't really one of my concerns at the moment.

"Well, I'll be seeing ya." I wave her off and she heads up the path after a quickly nod and a lazy wave. Once she disappears into her house I walk off for a bit, and then suddenly remember a rather important fact.

I'd lied about being able to get back home before sunrise the next morning.

Now I need a ride home.

I call Aki, since he's old enough to drive and he's essentially that nice a guy. He doesn't even sound irritated when I tell him to drive all the way 'up north' as it were. Of course when he arrives he doesn't seem any more pleased that he normally does. That's just how he is.

"Get in already. You plan on standing there all night?"

"Ah, right. Sorry." I quickly get into his rather old piece of shit car that apparently he grabbed from some foreigner a few years back before he could even drive it. I don't know the details, but apparently that car with the swapped wheel was important to the man. But foreigners and their cars are always a difficult concept for us Japanese to grasp. They're just cars for god's sake; there's no real value to them, is there? Then again, most foreign countries don't have train lines that go everywhere.

"You actually walked her home?"

"She'd probably have fainted along the way." I shrug off his inquisitive statement.

"Is that all?"

"Yeah. What other reason would I have had? She doesn't really have too many friends to begin with so I just went with what seemed to be the best choice."

"Rai." His tone is less indifferent and more serious. "We both know that's not why you'd do something as unnecessary as this."

"This line of questioning again, huh?"

That's right. I'd been so wrapped up in the Hinamizawa organizing and keeping our agenda relatively secret that I'd nearly pushed it all the way to the back of my mind.

I'm in love with Miyumi. And I mean, like, madly in love. And Aki here knows about it. This is the kind of crap I tell him about.

"You don't have that much time, you know."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what I mean." He lowers his head slightly to get a closer look at me. "She's not going to be around for much longer. She's only here for another year. You know that you have to act now before she slips away." He begins to drive after he says this while waiting for my response.

"You make it sound like I'm not trying."

"You're not. You're still keeping your friendly status with her. If you don't act now, you'll lose your chance."

"I'll do something about it when we're in Hinamizawa, alright?"

"You mean to tell me you haven't noticed?" His voice gives off a sort of defeated sound.

"What haven't I noticed this time?" This was an almost routine line of discussion with him. I wasn't the very observative type.

"She's upset about the whole deal. She doesn't want to go to that place."

"What makes you say that?" I question him but right before he answers I realize.

"That headache? Her bad mood? You mean these all slipped by you?"

"…I did notice that her headache came on all of a sudden. She had been fine the night before too." Miyumi probably didn't want to visit that place due to some latent fear that the so called "Curse of Oyashiro-sama" was still around.

"You must do this before we head to that village. You understand?"

"…Alright. Fine. I'll handle it."

Aki rounds the corner and before I know it we've reached my house. He lets me out of the car and I wave to him, although he doesn't wave back as he drives off into the distance.

I stare at the nearly full moon in the sky.

Come to think of it, the moon will be full on the night we reach Hinamizawa. That's a bit creepy. But as I turn to head off to my house Aki suddenly rounds the corner again. All he says is "Do you think it's real?"

Talk about creepy.

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><p>It's three days before we head off to Hinamizawa. Ayane-san has agreed to allow Shugo and Ayatane to join us on our excursion due to their insistent desire to protect Hatsune despite the fact that they constantly and consistently tease her. We've gotten most of the preparation out of the way.<p>

Miyumi didn't show up at school the day after her headache started up, and didn't show up the day after that. The following day, however, she arrived in school as if nothing had ever happened. Her smile is back to normal, her expression is back to normal, she kicks my ass at video games again as usual- everything is the same as it was before that day. I bring up that day at some point but she just brushes it off as if her most vulnerable moments weren't worth thinking about. Instead, she tries living out the more memorable moments of that day- namely the random crap we did around town.

Of course I still had to consider what Aki was going on about. It was almost as if I knew my time was running out. So in the end I decided to finally take some initiative.

It was after school on that day. Hatsune was taking the train to go shopping with her cousins and her mother, while I'm left alone with Miyumi. She was in a reasonably good mood and was complaining about some anime she watched that was a really bad adaptation of an ADV or something like that. Something about the dean of a college running a studio- whatever it was I wasn't particularly interested in it.

I almost interrupted her. "…You're not doing anything later, right?"

"Uh…No, I'm not. You wanted to go someplace?"

"Nowhere really special."

"…To your house maybe? Do you plan to kidnap me, strap me to a chair, and hide me in a dungeon?"

"Does your imagination have to be so screwed up?"

"I'm just making guesses."

"Guesses don't usually involve implicating someone of some really unrealistic crime."

"So you're saying that having a dungeon for a basement is unrealistic?" She was being stupid again. But I figured out that she was just trying to dodge my advances altogether. Oh no you don't. I'm not giving up that easily.

"Whatever. Just shut up and follow me."

She didn't say much after that until we reached the arcade. Apparently they were testing some new 3D technology that you didn't need glasses for at one of the machines…Wait, is that even possible with our 90's tech? Well, we're supposed to have flying cars in ten years or so…It's probably a sham. How often would something like that work? Wouldn't you have to sit completely still or something? If whatever that thing was ever gets a worldwide release, I guarantee they'll try to sell it for some insane price and end up dropping it since no one would buy something so obviously circumstantial. But anyhow, Miyumi seemed to enjoy herself tremendously. She'd been unusually happy like this whenever we went to this arcade over the last several months. Eventually when we left she suddenly took the initiative and dragged me around to a few places. She even had me sit with her in one of those incredibly shitty photo booths. Little did I know that she just did that so she could have photo evidence of me being bullied by her. I was never very comfortable around large amounts of pink to begin with.

Eventually it was late enough that Miyumi decided that she should head home. I almost sent her off, but I managed to convince her to let me walk her again.

"You're being a bit pushy about this, aren't you?" She brought up shortly after she consented.

_Oh crap she did not just say that._

"I'm supposed to, right? It's one of those laws about this sort of stuff." I try to hide my panicking thoughts with one of my standard replies. It wasn't as strong as it should have been.

"Laws? You mean like if we were dating you'd have to do this all the time?"

"It's not really like that, it's just one of those things." I had _no_ idea where the fuck I was going with this.

"Well, whatever you say." She'd clearly been unimpressed with that little exchange. We walked in silence for the most part after that.

It almost fell apart entirely. I wasn't sure what I was going to do to salvage this poor attempt at trying to get her into good enough of a mood to listen to me. The whole walking her home thing was already a touchy subject as it was. But once we passed the street that would lead to my house something unfortunate- or rather, something _fucking amazing _from my point of view at least- happened that fixed everything.

"They…Closed the street?" Miyumi gazed almost in horror at the sign. This was her only way home, as there weren't too many routes leading to that small secluded area and all of them were too far away.

"What for?" I hadn't even noticed it at first, but in a matter of moments something clicked and I noticed that this was a sign from god that I'd been given a second chance.

"It says it's due to a large accident further up."

"Well then…" Great, already off to another wonderful start, you dumbass.

"I don't think I'll be able to get home then." She didn't seem too particularly disappointed once that settled in. It seemed that she placed little value on that place that she lived in. I wouldn't blame her, honestly. "Well, I'll just head for a hotel then. I've probably got enough money. Anyway, seeya-"

"Wait a minute." I call out, but I don't even reach for her. "You know what? Just stay at my place."

"I can't do that." She states almost plainly after a few seconds of hesitation.

"Why not? It's not like you're going to bother me or anything."

"But won't your parents be concerned over it?" She let it out. Was she really afraid of my parents? The way she said the word _parents_ more or less implied that she didn't just bring them up out of the blue to find a way out. She was genuinely scared of them.

Well, she wouldn't be afraid of them for much longer, at any rate.

"Come on." I actually grabbed her wrist. She almost protested, but I cut her off. "It's not a problem. Don't go out of your way if you're just afraid of them."

"…Okay, I get your point. I'll stay by you for the night." Her tension slips away for a moment and we start walking.

Thank god there wasn't school tomorrow. Otherwise this wouldn't have been possible.

We walk along somewhat slowly. Me because I'm trying to process every single possibility in the sea of fragments that this situation could yield. If I'm too forceful she'll run. If I don't get my point across hard enough I'll get turned down immediately. If I play her tendencies the right way, there shouldn't be any other possible errors. Of course at this point I haven't realized that I'd neglected to let go of her wrist.

"You can let go of me now, you know. I'm not going to run away or anything." She almost laughs as she says that. At least she didn't wait too long to bring it up.

"…Oh, right. Sorry."

A few moments pass and she suddenly speaks up again.

"So we'll be heading to Hinamizawa in a few days, huh?" That's right. She wasn't all that inclined towards going there.

"You know…If you don't want to go, you could just tell me."

"And ruin it for everyone? Nah, I'll pass on that. I'm fine with going, really." Her tone of voice wasn't as resolute as her words. We dropped the discussion at that point.

By the way, I live in an apartment. I'm not exactly in the best financial status, given one rather simple little fact that has its benefits and its drawbacks.

We head up the elevator, Miyumi clearly becoming as tense as could be. She was really that concerned about meeting my parents? I wasn't really sure why, exactly. But at least she wouldn't have to be so worried about it for much longer.

I opened the door and we both walked into the empty apartment.

"It's empty….So you…"

"Did I never mention it?"

Oh, that's right. I don't have any parents. Haven't in god knows how long. They disappeared around seven years ago. I don't remember much of them, though. Since I've been living alone for most of my life anyhow.

"You don't have any parents, huh?" She almost sounded defeated. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

"I'm not going to blame you or anything. So now you know why I didn't mind you staying here."

"Anyway… You don't have any guest rooms, do you?"

"Nope. I'll just sleep on the floor or something."

"You're handing me your room? Are you sure you're feeling alright?"

"Why not? It's not like I'd make you sleep on the floor instead."

She didn't actually reply after that. I'd figure she'd pull one of her dumb remarks, like "you tell every girl that, don't you" or something to that effect.

She ended up walking into my room. It was completely spotless, much to her surprise. I'd never tell her this but I actually never use this room. I'm almost always asleep on the floor anyway. Why? Well- I'd rather not talk about it, actually.

"So this is what your room looks like. Are you some kind of forty year old disguised as a high school student?

"What the hell does that mean? Are you saying only middle aged men are supposed to keep their room clean?"

"Where I'm from they were."

"Well you come from a town of weirdoes then."

"You're not that far off, actually."

More silence. I almost forget my ulterior motive for this whole situation. This whole mess was caused by my really shitty attempt to get some confession going.

"…So you really do live alone, huh?" She suddenly spoke. I tried to hide the fact that she almost caught me off guard.

"Well, yeah. That's what I've been saying."

She turns to me suddenly. Before I can even ask what she's doing she grabs me by the shirt.

"Then I suppose I can do this now without any regrets."

And in the next thirty seconds or so I've managed to completely lock up, while she's somehow managed to toss me onto the bed with herself positioned on top of me. I'm almost too shocked at this to move. But the second she mashes her face against mine I sort of lost it entirely and decided to just let things happen.

Miyumi's kiss was almost forced. It was like she desperately needed to and she was trying her hardest to keep herself from stopping. It happened so incredibly quickly that by the time she shoved her tongue down my throat I'd only just managed to register what had happened. Of course at that point I decided to return this hastily thrown together display.

Eventually we had to break apart due to the lack of air, as most of these situations tended to turn out. Of course breathing through my nose would've been a decent alternative but at the time I hadn't been doing much thinking in general.

Without a single word we resumed making out, although at this point Miyumi had started crying. This time the kiss ended a lot sooner and I got to actually process some thoughts for the first time in the last five minutes.

"You're crying." Why the hell did I say something like that…?

"It's been fun. Living here, in this town, hanging out with you and Hatsune-chan for the past year. It's all been wonderful. But you know that I can't stay around for much longer."

"Yeah…I know."

"I know that after Hinamizawa I'll be gone." She paused slightly to get her thoughts together. I had two ideas as to what 'gone' could have meant. But this was the absolute most inappropriate time to bring it up. At this point she was staring straight at me, her green eyes sparkling due to the tears they were producing.

"So I decided. I decided that I'd do this before we left for the village. Because I wanted you to know that I really loved the time I spent here. Especially with you."

"…" I couldn't really respond to that. I probably would've seen this coming if I weren't too scared of making a fool out of myself and had paid a bit more attention to her the last hour or so.

"I thought I wouldn't get my chance. But now I have all the time I need. So I wanted to give you everything I have. Because I know we won't be able to do something like this ever again, and I wanted to tell you how much I really care about you. I'm sorry it can't be the way you'd probably want it, but this is all I can do."

"…."

"It's just I want you so badly…but I know I can't ever have you." Her voice nearly cracks at this point.

Say something already you son of a bitch.

It gets to the point where all I can do is hug her. And so that's what I do.

"I understand." I suddenly decided to get this over with. "I was aiming for a similar goal."

"You were, weren't you….That's why you were acting all weird and stuff today…I should've noticed sooner."

"I'm the only one guilty of that."

"…Rai-"

"If it's about your parents, or where you live, or why you don't want to go to Hinamizawa, I'd rather you keep it to yourself. You don't have to force yourself to tell me any of it."

"….Thank you."

Of course at this point both of our plans have gone so awry that we nearly forget how we planned to finish this whole situation off. Of course my plans weren't anywhere nearly as extreme as hers were.

In the end I more or less give into her demands and agree to sleep with her. Sex with Miyumi probably was about as uncoordinated as could be. Not that either of us cared in the slightest. I'll be honest- I love absolutely every single thing about her. Her eyes, her more defined assets, her spotless back, her long and slender legs- everything. I took this opportunity to please every single part of her perfect body. But that wasn't even really the best part. The fact that I was here, with this broken girl- the fact that I and I alone could save her from her madness was simply the greatest feeling in the world. The fact that she kept whispering "I love you" only made it better. It gets to the point where we can't stop, but eventually it gets late enough and we get tired enough that we end up just falling asleep.

We decided to avoid school on that last day and just spent all of our time in each other's presence.

* * *

><p>And that brings us to the present day. Miyumi almost too casually decided to sleep right next to me and was almost completely pressed against my back. Eventually, once Ayame woke she forced the rest of us to wake. Before that I softly kiss Miyumi to wake her. It works, and she lets out an uncharacteristically panicked yelp.<p>

"Today's the day. We're not going to hit much traffic if we leave now, so let's all get going." Ayame-san was trying to be as energetic as she could. It didn't help much, but at least she was trying.

"Hatsune-chan…." Miyumi groaned, resting her head against Hatsune's shoulder. "It's too early…"

"We have to leave as soon as we can, right? It doesn't matter how early; we have to leave if we want to get into the village without anyone noticing…" She didn't sound too true to her words given how she was partially dozing off as the two of them walked off to the bathroom. At the same time, mind you. They'll figure it out eventually.

She made a good point. Hinamizawa was actually off limits for the most part. But summer vacation had just started and there was little chance that we'd get caught due to the terrible heat wave passing through since the daily patrol the encompassed the road entrances to the village would probably start really late. Most Junes recently were like this.

"Rai-kun, can you help me pack these?" Ayame turned towards me. I smiled and nodded. Aki had already loaded most of the stuff into the van, but there was a bit more that I could help out with. I'm not sure why she wasn't forcing Shugo or Ayatane to do anything, though.

Eventually we were all prepared to go searching. We almost silently entered the van, with Ayame driving and Aki assisting with directions. The way we ended up getting settled in the back I was wedged between Miyumi and Shugo- who was more concerned with Hatsune at the time and didn't seem to care that he was crushing me.

The ride would be about three hours. It was also pretty silent. We all knew the dangers, but most of us had reached our resolution at this point. The sky seemed to be rather cloudy for the first day of summer, but we didn't really take too much notice of the weather patterns.

We managed to cross that forbidden line with relative ease. We were now in restricted territory and had about five miles to go until we reached the entrance to the village. Miyumi lightly squeezed my hand, which I squeezed back. This would be a defining moment in our group's existence. Not to mention the last few days I would ever spend with Miyumi before she was 'gone'.

Only fifteen minutes later and there it was. Hinamizawa, the begotten village. We'd found the entrance to one of the most mysterious places in the world.

The village of Hinamizawa had been destroyed in what was thought to be a gas leak. We knew better, though. We knew that there was more to it than what had been made public. After all, why else would they close off the village?

The mystery was mainly centered on the legend of Oyashiro-sama. The village had once been known as Onigafuchi, a village of demons. It is said that Oyashiro-sama was the mother of these demons, and that they reproduced with humans to create a hybrid breed between the two who would essentially be the villagers of Hinamizawa. Furthermore, it appeared that the cotton drifting ritual that was held around this time each year originated from demonic practices as well- a sacrificial ritual at that.

But Oyashiro-sama couldn't have been behind this incident, despite the cases of the Syndrome where people begged their god for forgiveness. It was definitively of a human cause- or so I thought. I needed to see this place in person to tell for myself.

"Alright, so you all know what the plan is. We're going to look around the central locations of the village- Rai will take the school, Hatsune and Shugo will take the shrine, Ayatane and Miyumi will take the residential area, and Akihito and I will take the hospital." Ayame more or less read out the plans that I had come up with the night before.

"You're going alone?" Miyumi made no attempt to hide her concern.

"Don't worry." I grin at her. "I won't run into any demons or anything."

She sighed. It was more a painful sigh than an indifferent sigh. "You're going to get yourself killed somehow. But suit yourself." She tried to regain her composure and shrugged it off.

And so we were off. The plan was to investigate certain sections of the village and return to the gate before sundown. I'd arranged the groupings as such in order to make sure Miyumi would be relatively safe. It wasn't like there were any places in that residential area that would prove dangerous.

Except, of course, for that one. But Ayatane was actually pretty strong when it came to fighting. So she'd be safe regardless.

I headed off to the school. Needless to say that the presence of fog in this area made me feel like I was going to walk into a dark room and never come out. But I got to the school in a few minutes without much time wasted.

I gazed at the building. In here, most of the village was gathered and killed. If anywhere, traces of evidence would be left here. I walked in slowly, taking note of anything particularly noteworthy.

I was rewarded once I got to the locker room. There was a cleaver left carelessly on the floor. There were shoes scattered all over the place, although most of them had been worn away. They were all reasonably normal sized for middle school kids. Although I was curious as to why the police hadn't spotted the cleaver. I stuffed it into a nearby locker. Taking that thing back wouldn't be a good idea. Who knows what implications that would make?

I made it to the end of the lockers. There was one labeled "Staff Only" that appeared to be half open. It had rusted to the point where I couldn't get it open normally. I wedged it open with the cleaver from before and looked inside for something noteworthy.

All that was in was a bat. It was really old and the metal handle had rusted completely. I examined the bat, but nothing stood out aside from the name written on the bottom of the bat.

Satoshi Houjou.

Why was this in a teacher's locker? More importantly, why was that name so familiar?

I decided to quickly search through the rest of the lockers before heading into the classroom. It was in an incredibly shoddy state. Desks had been knocked over and chairs were scattered around the door. It seemed that the citizens had been blocking the door for some reason. Was it to keep out the gas? Like that would have done any good.

I cleaned the dust off of a nearby window and looked outside. You had a clear view of the field outside, which seemed as desolate as the rest of the village. I decided afterward to look around the teacher's desk, upon which I found what appeared to be a class roster. Three names stood out to me, but aside from that the list was not very informative.

At that point I turned around and suddenly, after staring at the state of the classroom from this spot, something suddenly clicked.

"So it's true after all…"

I return to the gate, where Aki and Ayame have returned from their searching of the hospital. They were both seated in the car, apparently eating lunch.

"Hey, I'm back."

"There you are. You didn't do anything stupid, did you?" Aki spoke his concerns.

"I'd be dead if I did anything stupid. But anyway, I've found something out."

"Really? So is it what you though it was?" Ayame questioned.

"Yeah. It's a confirmed trick."

"So I take it we need to move on to the second part of the plan." Ayame spoke again, while Aki was a bit confused as to what she was talking about.

"Second part? We've got more to do?" He was just a bit concerned about being kept in the dark about something.

I nod my head. She nods her head as well and smiles. She turns to Aki.

"Ms-"

At that moment Ayame kisses him. She forces him into an incredibly intimate kiss. He clearly wasn't expecting that.

After a few seconds they break apart and before he can question her sudden action she whispers into his ear.

"Sorry to do this to you, love."

She drives the knife in her hand straight through his heart. He bleeds out and dies only a matter of seconds later. His eyes roll into the back of his head and he falls limp.

"Let's get this over with." She says. She reaches into the back of the van to pull something out.

All I do is nod.

* * *

><p>Even though I had no idea this would happen, I shouldn't have sent those two to check out the shrine together. I blame myself completely for it.<p>

But hell, how was I supposed to know that these two were in an incestuous relationship?

"…Shugo….Shugo...Please, Shugo…." Hatsune moans as her cousin thoroughly screws her. Whether or not this was an ulterior motive of their arrival here or not didn't really concern me.

"Shugo…Let me….Let me…" She tries to speak but eventually gets her point across and they shift positions.

It's disgusting. It's the most disgusting thing I've seen in my entire life.

Eventually, once they've finished fucking each other in the forbidden shrine storehouse, they actually proceed with their plan that rather obviously was completely different from mine.

"In here. Oyashiro-sama's gift to humanity should be in here. And after we find that…" Her voice dies out as her cousin wraps his hands around her chest. The mere sight of this makes me want to puke. It isn't even the fact that they're related. Just from the looks in their eyes- this wasn't love. This wasn't anything of the sort.

"After that we won't have to worry about this secret anymore. We can do whatever we want."

They kiss rather suddenly. But shortly after that they go back to searching.

About ten minutes pass before something happens.

"I've yet to find it….What about you?"

"I'm still looking. Maybe they moved it."

"That's not possible. Furude-san's most precious items were stored here."

"But maybe the gift was stored somewhere that didn't stand out."

"…Maybe it's just hidden in this room." Hatsune didn't want to give up hope apparently.

A few more minutes passed and Shugo drew close to the entrance.

"I'm going to step out for a moment."

"Okay. Don't take too long." Clearly Hatsune was dead set on finding this object.

A few minutes passed after that.

"...Hey, Shugo?" She called for him but there was no answer.

"Hey, Shugo, are you there?"

"Shugo?"

She turned around. What she saw she almost thought was an illusion at first.

But she had to scream at the sight of Shugo's headless corpse sprawled out on the ground just outside the storehouse.

He said something peculiar as I killed him.

"Please….Save her."

I'd supposed I'd oblige. But first to make her pay for defiling a sacred storehouse.

I rushed into the room and pinned her to the floor. I took my prized katana and I lightly poked at her neck with it.

"I never picked you for a former village resident."

"What-Why? Why did you kill Shugo? Why?"

"Because you disgust me more than anyone else in the world at the moment."

"No…No…No. No. No. No. NOO!"

I draw a small amount of blood from her neck and as she tries to move out of the way I drive the blade through her hand and into the floor. She screams in agony as blood seeps upwards from the wound. Eventually she can't take the pain and forcefully rips her hand apart in order to escape. Unfortunately I've got her legs pinned to the ground with my weight already.

I cut along the waistline, drawing blood enough blood from it that she most likely is already losing vision. I then slice along her legs, leaving a large trail of blood from the wounds formed from both. Lastly, I position the blade for my final strike, hell-bent on finishing her off in the most vicious way possible. My sword would need some serious cleaning after this.

She stares in horror, unable to even produce a sound. I slowly cut through her clothing and as she braces herself I quickly thrust the blade through her all the way to the hilt. She makes a curdled sound that might have been a scream and quickly expires. I withdraw the blade before she can release any more of her filth on it. I kick her body to the side and kneel in front of the statue of Oyashiro, apologizing for the gruesome display. As I leave the storeroom with her mutilated body in tow I decide to throw her head along with her so called cousin's into the river. It'd be nice if someone found them so their bodies wouldn't be sitting out her for too long.

I clean off the sword in the river and return to the van where Ayame awaits.

"Have fun?"

"Too much." I say as she drives off to our final destination.

After we reach the Sonozaki estate- the place where Ayatane and Miyumi most definitively had decided to search for evidence- I decide that it is best for Ayame to fulfill the second part of our contract. She agrees with a simple nod and then she decides to grant her final words to me.

"Everything we worked for…This is where it all ends, right? You've got everything you need, all your pawns in place- even me, for that matter."

"Yeah. That's about what it amounts to."

"So you'll….Tell them the truth? You'll fulfill the fate that was dealt to you?"

"Yeah. That's what I promised."

"Very well, then…I have no further inquiries."

"Very well. You are dismissed."

And with that I walk off towards the Sonozaki estate while Ayame slits her throat with the still bloodied knife. She bleeds out instantaneously and falls to the ground. I do not look back.

In the end she was a fool. A beautiful, beautiful fool.

The estate itself was about as dark and musty as that cave I trained in for about two years. Every room was about as dark and morbid as could be, with the stench of raw flesh hanging in the air. Clearly someone had died very recently in this area. I searched around for some sort of entrance to the underground slaughterhouse that I knew existed. Eventually I made my way towards the outside of the estate, upon which I found an open crevice that most likely lead to the place I was searching for. I decided to head down the staircase that appeared before me. It was nearly pitch black, with the only light source being a light further down the shaft.

Needless to say, despite everything, I was a little surprised to find Ayatane's mangled corpse littered on the ground at the entrance to the next room. I inspected his remains to find that not only had most of his hair been ripped out when he was still alive (given certain signs of stress on the upper scalp) but all of his fingernails and toenails had been ripped out. But more importantly his hands were bloodied. Had he been stabbed repeatedly in these spots…Or had he been forced through something else?

I decided to proceed into the incredibly dark chamber. I knew that Miyumi was down here. Alive? Maybe not. But given the circumstances I had a feeling that she was.

I found my way to another room. There was what appeared to be a large apparatus positioned in the center of the room. The Sonozakis apparently used this to persecute members of several groups back when they were still relatively close to the Yakuza. There was fresh blood scattered about it, concentrated in two spots. Looks like I was right. I almost lose my composure but I've seen worse.

I head further in, probably as deep as you could go.

There was a large apparatus in the center of the room. It appeared to be some sort of restrainer that was built to lock a human in place. There was also fresh blood scattered about it as well.

"…!" I heard a small gasp. I already knew who it was.

"So it was you after all…I should have known, honestly."

My cold gaze was directed at the rather disheveled Miyumi who was reclined in a respectful position on the floor with a katana at her side, dressed in a black robe. Her eyes were wide with what appeared to be a mixture of shock and a bit of deranged delight at having found another victim.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way. I planned on making yours as tender as possible."

"You're talking about sticking a fork in me, right? Not my death. Just wanting to clear that up."

She laughed slightly, like she always did.

"I suppose that you'll never really change in the end." She rose to her feet, her unsheathed katana at her side. She flipped the blade as to prepare her oncoming charge.

"I only really changed once I met you, you know."

"….You've only just met me." She spoke, before raising her head to look straight at me again. "I suppose I should reintroduce myself now."

"I already know everything about you."

"Do you now?" She seemed someone put off guard by that.

"The day we met was the day I first noticed something about you. It took me until only yesterday to finally understand who you really were, and it took me until now to confirm it."

"You want to back up your line of reasoning?" She knew it was useless.

"Your drastic personality change when we decided to visit this village. The fact that you didn't want anyone calling you 'Mii-chan' when Hatsune tried to come up with a shorter name for you the day we met. How you managed to open the pathway to this underground slaughterhouse without much issue. How you know how to operate all of this equipment. But most importantly- Hatsune's infatuation with you. And the fact that she tried to call you 'Mii-chan'. Coupled with the fact that she too used to live in this village, I can confirm that she was in on it, am I correct?"

She smiled as I finished my speech.

"You are Sonozaki Mion. I don't know your motives for hiding yourself amongst the living, but all I know is that you've done a damn good job of impersonating a high school student for someone who's in their twenties. You survived the destruction of this village- simply because you're the sole reason why they died in the first place."

"Are you sure?" She said as her face broke into a wicked grin and a gut wrenching laugh followed.

"I'm more than sure. I know for fact that is who you are. You and your family are the culprits in this murder case. Of that I am sure."

"Well then…I suppose I can't let you live, now can I?" She said as her laughing continued.

She leapt at me. It seems she hadn't seen my katana yet.

I swiftly blocked her first strike and she was forced to jump back far enough to avoid my countering thrust. Her eyes went wide, but her grin did not fade.

"That blade….That's…!"

"I believe that I have to reintroduce myself as well."

"Ooooh? So you've kept a few secrets of your own as well? So I take it you also impersonated a high school student?" It seemed that her lunacy had taken control of her. Whatever was left of Miyumi in this woman was now long dead.

"My name- Rai Sumidera? It came from the name of a similarly named boy who I murdered a few years back. I simply took his identity and destroyed the corpse. That way no one would ever be able to find him." In other words, Rai Sumidera- his identity, his friends, and his personality- I stole all of them. I phased into his existence almost seamlessly. Aki, Hatsune- the lot of them all saw me as the Rai Sumidera who died years ago.

"So then you are you really?" She cocked her head to the side.

"Don't you know already? You seemed to recognize this blade."

"I know what that blade is. But it's not possible for you to have it. After all…No one alive is supposed to know where it was being hidden."

"My name is Riku Furude. I am the elder brother of Rika Furude, who you gutted and left to die on the sacred shrine grounds twelve years ago. You have defiled my family and what it stands for, and therefore I will not let you leave this place alive."

Her eyes widened. They appeared to display confusion. She soon cackled once again. "Very well then…_Riku Furude_…. If you plan to kill me, let's see you back up your bold claim."

I snarled and jumped at her. She did the same. Our swords clashed as she cackled at me, while I remained completely silent and focused.

The battle raged on, with no signs of either of us tiring. Every single blade swipe was met with another, and our highly skilled footwork left no room for error or mistakes. It was a perfect battle. She leapt at me with a downward slash, which I quickly evaded and countered with a horizontal slice. She was far too quick to be caught off guard by something like that, though. Around now, things started to get a bit hectic. She managed to block the slash, but not before throwing out her arm and pushing me to the ground. She stood above me, ready to plunge the blade into me. As she did, however, I managed to figure out where she was aiming. I moved my head out of the way in a split second as the blade came down. I grabbed it with my free arm, not caring for the searing pain that came with gripping a sharp blade. Yanking it from where it was rooted, I managed to pull her down and onto my sword that I'd positioned with my other hand…..

Or at least that was the plan, but she managed to twist her upper torso in such a way that she was able to avoid it. She crashed on top of me, and almost instantaneously started to scratch at my eyes. I forced her off with the hilt of her own blade, which she somehow managed to knock out of my hand with her left foot despite being on the receiving end of the blow. At the end of that small portion of our fight I realized she'd only lost her sword for a grant total of four seconds before she'd expertly recovered it. Surely, if I were in a similar situation I'd be dead by now. She grasped at the blade for dear life and managed to nick my left arm with the tip as I backed away from her instantaneous counter strike. Moving out of the way I managed to bring a swift diagonal strike along her side. She'd blocked it, but I'd cleaved a small portion of her hair in half. Like that was much of an achievement. But she'd apparently been pissed off enough that she grabbed a nearby axe on the ground and hurled it at me. Not expecting a move like that, I nearly stumbled, and in that instant she drove her blade straight at me. She narrowly missed my heart, skimming my side. It still hurt like hell, but I managed to catch her in the moment she was re-calculating her moves and struck her along a similar spot. Realizing she'd been hit, she stopped moving altogether, as if something in her brain had shut off. But in a matter of moments she raced towards me, her blade poised at a ridiculously imprecise angle, seemingly pointing towards the ground. But it worked- she managed to stab my lower abdomen when I tried to block but didn't account for the downward thrust. By some ridiculous miracle she avoided nicking anything important, and the wound was far from fatal. It still bled rather badly, but at least she hadn't been able to pierce my leg thoroughly.

She pulled back while I decided to throw a counter move. But at this point I was far too drained to pull off anything flashy. She effortlessly blocked it with her blade, moving forward to take advantage of my suddenly sluggish movement. She missed me narrowly, and with most of the energy I had left I managed to catch her off guard, causing her to back up again. Throughout the entire fight I hadn't been able to figure out how to follow up on her retreat. No matter how I went at her she constantly threw up her unbreakable defense.

But this time, I figured something out.

She was far too skilled with the blade to ever be able to be defeated by someone such as I. I knew it was only a matter of time before she gained the upper hand. That was why when we locked blades after she noticed I was spent, I ended up tripping up at the last moment and she managed to force me to a kneeling position.

Given how defeat was inevitable for me at that point if I kept fighting fair, I went ahead and drew the bloodied dagger from my robe and stabbed her abdomen.

Did I say I never turned back? Yeah, I lied. Makes for good twists like this one. I hope you like unreliable narration.

She screamed but shortly afterward laughed again.

"You cheated…Hehehe…. You're an asshole, you know that?"

"I only try my hardest." She dropped to the floor after that. "But you have to do whatever it takes to win, right?"

"Heh…Where'd you hear that?"

"I don't know, actually. Maybe you've said that to me before."

She coughed repeatedly, unable to so much as pick her blade off the floor. After a few moments of silence she spoke again.

"It looks like I lost….The penalty game….I wonder what the penalty game should be… How about… I tell you anything you want to know…?" She was apparently willing to give me answers.

"In that case, tell me why. Why did you do all of this? Why did you kill my sister?"

"Your…Sister….? Rika….chan? I didn't….kill Rika…chan….I only…killed….-kun…. It was my fault…"

"You killed who?"

"But….I don't think….Rika-chan….had a brother…."

"What do you mean? I was hospitalized around the time our parents died, and I wasn't even living in Hinamizawa then! I know that I'm her older brother!"

"….Parents….Dead….That's right….but…." Her eyes suddenly became slightly wider as she beckoned me towards her. She reached out to touch my face. As she did, she suddenly gripped harder.

Her sadistic grin returned. "You wanna know why I let you fuck me?" She said with tears flowing from her eyes that she probably never even knew were there.

"….Why?"

"It's because you look so much like him….Like…..Like…..-kun….." At that moment she went limp.

She knew. She knew something about me that I didn't. But she took that secret with her to the grave. Mion Sonozaki died in agony. She died as I had wanted her to.

But in the end I suppose I wasn't truly satisfied.

I still knew nothing. I only knew part of the truth of Hinamizawa. I didn't know why the village had to be purged. I didn't know why my little sister was gutted in such a way.

I'd come all this way- but I still knew nothing.

Just as I knew no more when I fell unconscious due to blood loss from a wound I didn't even know I had.

* * *

><p><em>Lunatic Moon Chapter Result:<br>_Rai Sumidera – Murdered for simply being  
>Akihito Shishio- Captured by the kiss of death<br>Shugo Edogawa- Beheaded gracefully for his desire to save the one who was close  
>Hatsune Edogawa- Mutilated and beheaded for her lust and disgrace<br>Ayame Yamashita- Suicide, as part of the contract with the son of Furude  
>Ayatane Edogawa- Mangled and mutilated by the demon Sonozaki<br>Miyumi Satonaka- Missing, all who remained was the demon Sonozaki  
>Mion Sonozaki- Death by the same tricks she so coveted<br>"Riku Furude"- Missing, whether or not he existed in the first place is up for debate

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><p><strong><em>Author's Note:<em>**

And that conclude's the day's uploads. As far as OC material is concerned, expect more material like this chapter, just to give you an idea. H-scene/Lemon content will be as non descriptive as it was here, so if you think it'll ruin the story later on (if it hasn't already) you won't have to be too concerned. As I mentioned, I'll wait for some reader feedback before I continue on. So with that, I hope you enjoyed this opening for what it's worth.


	4. Bio Study Observation 02

_**Author's Note**_

Moving right along, I'll be posting these in smaller portions from here on out.

* * *

><p><strong>Bio Study Observation 02 : Subject ACER-0138234691<strong>

This'll probably seem more like a diary entry than an observation report, but I whole-heartedly think that this is appropriate for a study as convoluted as this one.

About four weeks have passed since the last one of these that I've written, and the developments we've seen don't have much to do with the man himself, but rather the reaction we've been getting from our own fellow medical staff members. It would seem that this man is far more unique than we ever would have thought- it seems that he is the single carrier of the so called Hinamizawa Syndrome. How this is possible we still aren't sure. After all, the syndrome is purely psychological. But we've determined from studying the effects that exposure to the man on a constant basis is just as plausible a method to contract the syndrome- even if you aren't a resident of that village. This has been confirmed due to the fate of poor Aria, who has begun her own treatment due to having displayed psychological disorders that the rest of the staff could not explain. It would appear; however, that Saika has completely ignored the whole situation and still keeps him company on a regular basis. Why this is I have no idea, but I assume she just believes that Aria simply cracked under some sort of pressure and she believed that she would not succumb to that. But Saika seems to be highly optimistic about the entire situation and seems relatively unaffected by the man. As such, I have moved her onto my team in Aria's place. Mido was against the idea of replacing Aria, but I eventually convinced him to let it go.

As I write this I am standing outside the man's room, looking at him through the glass window. He seems so incredibly indifferent to all of this, even though we've already gone and told him about what had been happening to Aria. Instead, the man seems to be plagued by something else all together. Saika has informed me that he has been experiencing throes of pain in his chest, his legs, his stomach as well as his neck and his esophagus. What could be causing this pain I really just have no idea. I highly doubt this line of research will ever yield anything, but as I actually like this job I'll leave my objections at that and let you figure out the rest for yourself.

Of course, after I mulled this over, I decided to do the same as Saika had done. I entered the room and we simply talked. I pressed him for details on Sonozaki , but as usual all he could recall was the name and the great pain it brought him. Since I knew asking him would get me nowhere, I decided to bring my line of questioning to Saika, who reportedly had a decent grasp of the entire situation given her prior experience in the cult field, having been following that nasty incident a few years back with an entire family of rich people turning up dead on their own private island. I actually remembered bits and pieces of this when it first hit the media and I realized that there were some similarities between the two- the mystery factor. So I figured that Saika would be the most useful of our current staff to investigate this.

It's needless to say that I got what I needed and more. It turned out that she knew someone from college who was huge on the occult scene and after contacting him he pointed us in the direction of an occult site dedicated to the Hinamizawa incident that was recently suspended due to the rumor that the entire group had turned up dead a short while ago. I verified this with Kuma-san from the precinct, and we determined that they all were part of the occult group we'd been informed about- the Watchers, who were essentially a group of people who investigated (or 'watched') information relevant to the original incident in order to discover "the truth" of Hinamizawa's disaster. It's only somewhat noble, and in the end their curiosity ended up getting them killed.

Anyhow, the site was filled to the brim with information pertinent to the name of Sonozaki- more specifically the elder sibling, Sonozaki Mion. There was more information on her than we would ever need- hell; they had her blood type and weight. Watchers? More like Deranged Stalkers. I wouldn't be surprised if the woman herself was part of this group. We managed to ascertain one of the more popular theories about the incident in that it was supposedly caused by the Sonozaki family, a former Yakuza branch, in retaliation to the town's precious rituals and whatnot. There was absolutely no way to verify this, of course, but if the Sonozaki family was wiped out as well I highly doubt this was the case. Or perhaps they're all in hiding? Regardless, we still had no information on Sonozaki Shion, but knowing about the elder might actually help us out in the long run.

We decided to visit him together. He was a bit uncertain about me, of course, since I was just some random doctor who could be plotting to kill him. He seemed so insecure when anyone entered the room _with _Saika, but when anyone entered on their own he'd be fine. It was a strange development, but then again _everything _about this whole case is a strange development. I'd just read up on an occult faith, for god's sake. Anyhow, upon being told everything we knew about Sonozaki Mion, he actually did something remarkable. By some stroke of luck we'd somehow managed to trigger something from within his memory- it wasn't much, and he nearly had a heart attack trying to relay it to us, but Saika with her insanely accurate understanding of this man managed to keep him under control. We'd learned that Mion was apparently a demon. What exactly that meant I wasn't even remotely sure. I just knew that this man had a great fear of the Sonozaki siblings, but what that fear was rooted in I was still unsure. Perhaps in time he'll be able to produce more productive results. I leave the room and Saika tends to him while I try to mull this situation over. He calms down rather quickly, and I am able to press him for a few more minutes before Saika gets a tad irritated with me and sends me out of the room.

This man is about as remarkable as could be. He can't even remember his own name, but he can somehow remember the names of these two twins- one who brings him great pain and the other who brings him great fear. Somehow I can't help but think that these rumors might have some credibility to them. But despite the futility of it all I will continue to research this man, but now I will focus more intently on the occult's view of things. After all, the name of Sonozaki is meaningless to all but these people, and I believe that the past of this family is required in order to achieve the final resolution that this case requires.

**Report End**

**Please Turn to Page 13**


	5. Double Demon Chapter

_**Author's Note**_

Warning. Lengthy AN incoming.

**New Feature/Character: The Unreliable Narrator (Third Person Perspective)**

As already mentioned in the last main chapter, I hope you like unreliable narration. Because from here on out it gets a whole lot worse. And unlike in the last chapter, you won't have the answer spelled out by the end. Essentially the purpose for the Unreliable Narrator is to provide bits of information that add onto the main chapters- but force the reader to look for it themselves, as everything but the small bits will be red herrings in their entirety- or just extra information. Figuring out which is which is the hard part.

Some ground rules involving this new function:

The Unreliable Narrator is exclusive to the side stories. He will not be telling the story in either the main chapters or the Reports.  
>The Unreliable Narrator <em>is <em>a character (therefore not counting as meta). He _will_ have some further manifestation. Where and when...I'll save that for later.

As for what to look for? Look for recurring themes. Especially obscure ones.

**About Side Stories in General:**

Each set of three side stories has something to do (even if incredibly tiny) with the main chapter posted before it. Each one will follow the perspective of the Unreliable Narrator. Each one will contain a whole lot of unnecessary information. Each one will take place in Hinamizawa and will be written around many different versions of the village, but based on the main chapter before it in terms of important content.

Also note: in each story someone, whether the focus character or not, will be infected with the syndrome. For now I'll go a bit easy and make it a tad bit obvious as to who has it, but it'll become nigh impossible later on.

And also there may be more than two killers. Just throwing that out there.

Also **beware a really nasty scene later on in this chapter. **

* * *

><p><strong>Double Demon Chapter<strong>

_Please be aware that the following story is not as factual as it is simply a way for the Unreliable Narrator to take his anger out on the thousands of goats who would stumble upon the source material. This story as such is purely designed to twist the reader's perception of the events of the Hinamizawa Disaster and as such should be taken with a grain of salt. However, I have modified this story to display variant aspects of the user-defined truth and as such should not be skipped. _

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

**_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (Perspective character gets the bold):  
><em>**Ryuugu Rena  
>Sonozaki Shion<br>Sonozaki Mion  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Houjou Satoko  
>Furude Rika<br>**The Unreliable Narrator** (Faceless)

Morning came, and as every morning was in Hinamizawa in June it was already roughly 90 degrees. The temperature had gone up almost dramatically, and from what Keichi already knew about the village he'd just become an official part of only a few weeks ago this was standard procedure, especially after the Watanagashi Festival that they had just held last night. The temperature picked up so suddenly for Keichi. Yesterday it had been a pleasant 70 degrees, but the second he woke up this morning- a day when thank god he didn't have any school, mind you- he was hit with a sudden wave. He decided to make use of the air conditioner that was stuck into one of the windows in the room to cool the place off using the remote he'd somehow managed to find. He figured that staying indoors would be the best for today.

The person next to him apparently caught his motion and was unintentionally woken. She shuffled around a bit before figuring out where she was as the memories of the night before came flooding back.

"Eh…Kei-chan…It's too early. Why'd you wake me up?" She whined, poking Keichi with her foot.

"Ah, sorry, Shion. I just turned on the air conditioner. It's way too hot in here."

She groaned, still clearly tired. "Hey…Eh, I guess I forgive you." She somewhat tiredly threw her arms around him and pulled him into a kiss, not really caring for his response.

After they broke apart, she suddenly realized something. "Oh- you don't have school today."

"Neither do you." Keichi remarked, pointing out a very obvious fact that Shion tended to avoid since she never really went to school much in general.

"You know what I meant. But we get to do stuff today. We never get to do stuff."

"What, so letting you stay here while my parents are gone doesn't count as doing stuff? Did you lose your memory overnight or something?"

"No. But I mean like non-sex stuff. I'm sure Mion won't be leaving town for the next few days, so we could head to Angel Mort if you'd want."

"How about somewhere more classy?"

"So you're saying Angel Mort isn't classy?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying."

"Eh….I'd have to agree with you, I guess." She let out a small laugh.

"But anyway, I know what you're talking about. I'm really sorry about that. But it's just right now we have something a bit more important to focus on, right?"

"….Yeah, I know." She became quiet. Noticing that he'd become a bit more depressed as the topic of their early morning discussion changed, she almost too quickly latched onto his arm and tried to salvage the mood. "Well…You could say it'll be our first official murder as a couple." She topped that off with a sly grin. Keichi didn't know what possessed him to laugh, but he did. It wasn't as much a funny laugh as it was an indifferent laugh.

"I still can't figure out how we're going to hide the body."

"We'll think of something. You do know that I've got enough experience with this sort of stuff, right?"

"What, with burying dead bodies?"

"No, just shady stuff in general."

"Heh, of course I know." He was still downcast.

She pulled him into her arms and lightly kissed him. "You can trust me. You know that, right?" she whispered in his ear.

"Yeah. Of course. I know it'll be alright in the end. We're doing the right thing to begin with."

"Right. We'll save Satoko from that bastard. And then we'll all move on with our lives."

"Right." _Right. Right. _He was forced to repeat it to himself out of sheer disbelief over what he was about to do.

It had happened only a week earlier. Satoko's abusive uncle had returned to Hinamizawa and had forced her out of the house where she had been staying with Rika up to that point. After that event, Satoko seemed to lose whatever traces of humanity that she had been born with and had become some sort of walking shell. She'd essentially been abused by her uncle in countless ways and the psychological trauma certainly left its mark. Not only that, but Satoko seemed to present more and more signs of illness whenever she arrived at school.

Shion, having treated Satoko as a little sister for quite some time, was unable to bear with this development. She desperately wanted to save her, but in the process she knew that there was only one way to save her- that was to remove the bastard Teppei out of the equation all together. She almost went through with it at first, but Keichi, her most recent (and in all probability her only up to that point) object of affections managed to talk her out of it, only to tell her that they would do it together.

The plan was relatively simple. They'd call Satoko's house, pray that she didn't pick up, and call her uncle to the police station. On his way down they would ambush him, drag him into the woods, and kill him. They would then bury the body in a pit that they had only finished digging the other day and hopefully the body would not be found. They couldn't figure out any more refined way to do it besides to burn the corpse. But despite her experience with such things as destroying evidence or hiding things, Shion didn't have any method to erase the body completely without drawing attention towards the potential pyre.

Today was the day that they planned to do that. They needed to make sure that everything was in order.

But for the time being they were free from their already faltering consciences.

"Hey, Kei-chan." She suddenly spoke up.

"Yeah? Is something wrong?"

"I was thinking…Maybe we should listen to Mion for a change."

"We're not backing out, are we?" He had specifically said _we_ as opposed to _you_. Clearly he had put all judgment regarding their soon-to-be crime into her hands.

"I don't want that. The chance that Mion could fail is a bit too high."

"…I get what you mean though. Maybe Satoko doesn't want this."

"She lost her aunt already. Maybe she doesn't want anyone else from her family to die."

"But there's a way around that." Keichi suddenly spoke after thinking for a few seconds.

"What's that?" For the first time Shion wasn't able to figure out what he was thinking.

"If she loses her family, all she'll need would be replacements."

"Replacements, huh….?" Shion already knew that something like that was completely impossible. Especially if they intended to replace her _whole _family.

"Satoko recognized me as her second brother. Or nii-nii, whatever it was."

Shion was a tad surprised at this development. "…No, that's right. That's what she always called Satoshi-kun too…."

Again. She'd done it again. She brought his name up. She knew Keichi didn't like it when she brought Satoshi up.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

Keichi embraced her. "I know. Don't worry. I won't hold it against you."

"…Okay." She sighed.

"But as I was saying….We can do it. Just the two of us. We can bring her back from that place she's locked herself in. All we have to do is be there, and open up to her. All we need to do is accept all of her feelings no matter how difficult it becomes."

"….Just the two of us, huh?" She almost sounded like she didn't believe what he was saying.

"Of course Rika is her best friend. So she could help too, if it gets too difficult."

"…No, I'd like it better if it was just the two of us."

"You really mean it this time?"

"Yeah…Of course I do. After all…You're the only one in the world…The only one who can…"

"I think I understand." Keichi replied before she could finish, knowing that where her thoughts would take her would make things more painful than they needed to be.

"Okay." She barely whispered, finding it a lot more assuring to just remain in Keichi's embrace.

* * *

><p>Keichi entered the room, reclining into a respectful position. He sat this way solely because he was in the presence of the single other person in the room.<p>

"So, you're going to go through with the plan anyway?"

"Yeah. That's what we decided. I thought I would tell you, since you're as much a part of this as we are."

"I know that she's suffering…But have you really decided that this is the best route to take?"

"This is all we can do. We've decided on this because we've exhausted all the other options."

"So you're going to accept your fate, then?"

"I guess I have to."

She shook her head.

"It's unfortunate….But I suppose there isn't really a choice in the matter, is there? It seems that this too is a dead end."

Keichi couldn't really understand what the seemingly personality-bent shrine maiden had said. He honestly never did when they spoke alone like this.

It had been three hours since he'd left the house with Shion. They'd done things that any normal couple would do- as long as Mion wasn't in the vicinity, of course. They'd parted at around two in the afternoon, with Shion still having her Sonozaki duties to perform and Keichi having to return to the village and visit the Furude shrine to discuss matters with the third member of their criminal scheme.

Rika's face was always downcast whenever they spoke of this, but not downcast in the sense that she was sad- the look upon her face was that of defeat. The cold, empty look in her eyes, the deep scowl that seemed to give off a sort of hatred for something that Keichi could never understand, the fact that when she displayed this dark expression she was never really staring at Keichi- but rather through him, as if his presence there didn't have any purpose whatsoever. It was more a face that someone who had completely given up on life would make, as opposed to something as generic as "downcast". It wasn't the face a ten year old would make, at any rate.

So therefore she just simply wasn't a ten year old. Her ramblings about fate, how violence will ultimately lead to disaster, how no matter how hard he tries tragedy is inevitable for all parties- clearly she was wise far beyond her years.

Rika sighed. Again, not a sigh of sadness, but a sigh of defeat. It was as if she felt no emotion at all.

"In the end I guess all of this is still just as pointless."

"…I'm sorry." From his reclined position, he bowed at her.

Her head suddenly snapped up. He had apologized to her. She certainly hadn't been expecting that.

"Why the hell are you apologizing?" She almost yelled at him. "There's nothing you could've done to change things anyway! It doesn't matter how hard you try."

"In the end I can't even do anything to stop it. Hell, I'm the one causing it to happen. Involving Shion is just a way for me to have some petty resolve, since I'm not the only one doing it."

"You can't force yourself to try to change things. Even if it weren't you to begin with, it would be someone else, determined by fate. That's the nature of this sort of thing. There's no way to overcome fate. It's impossible."

"But I can't accept that!"

Her face remained unchanged. It was as if she expected him to say that.

"I just want to save Satoko. I don't want to set in motion some chain of events that'll end up killing everyone. I don't want to submit to something like that. I want to live my own life, and live with my own mistakes."

"I want to save her too. I want to save everyone. But it's too late now. Killing Teppei at this point is the only way to save her, even if just for a short while."

"Well then I'll make it so that short while will make up for all the pains she's been forced to go through."

"…You can't possibly mean that."

"I do mean it. I'll do whatever it takes. Just as long as everyone can live out their lives the way they should."

Rika walked over to him. He raised his head.

"Keichi…You'll do whatever I say, right?" She readjusted his face so he was staring straight into her cold eyes.

"…Right." His voice grew dark. "Whatever you say."

"That's right…Because you're my furniture. I can do whatever I want with you."

"That's right. Furniture." Even now, he still didn't understand the real meaning behind those words. But he knew that this relationship was intoxicating, in the sense that he was able to go on living, knowing that there was one person in the world that had use for him. Ever since his arrival in the village at the start of the month of June, he had faced himself in an instance of self reflection in which he realized something very important.

He'd done terrible things to people in his past, simply because he was useless. He'd never been a good student- his brain was far too advanced for seemingly trivial things that a system regulated on a yearly basis to pass through the brains of children on a worldwide scale. He'd never been any use in anything academically simply because of his lack of care, and sports-wise he had never really been interested in some of the watered down variations of sports that were seemingly regulated by that same, orderly, normalized and most importantly unchanging system.

He'd been useless, because he had spent his life trying to live outside the system that everyone else tried to live in. But worse- he'd taken out his desire to change the way he lived on that little girl. The girl had just been a normal child, one perfectly happy with her life. He'd been enraged by that.

He'd done these things, and he'd now moved out to Hinamizawa where that system had little influence. Sure it consisted of a place of learning- but it was a place where he could apply his knowledge of many topics to benefit someone else who he knew would have no trouble living in that system. He knew that one day he would have to join the system as well, but if he stayed here until that day arrived then he would be able to deal with it using a more positive outlook. But the dull certainty that he wouldn't ever be recognized in the slightest for doing something as trivial as helping someone with their homework continued to plague him.

He'd never suspected Rika of her true self. The originally normal grammar school child with the cute face and the sweet nature she had became this dark and twisted figure right before his eyes. Deep down he knew that all she wanted was to break away from the world that was tormenting her. She wanted to be free of everything that bound her to the way she was seemingly forced to live now. He'd managed to understand that part of her other self perfectly. He eventually determined that his purpose here was to protect her. But no matter how hard he tried, she refused to allow one of her friends to protect her. Of course Keichi couldn't accept that. He needed a reason to keep on living despite the inevitable end that he all but knew for certain would befall him.

Keichi then established himself at a different level. He proposed that she treat him not as a friend, but as a bodyguard. Of course, in this context he became her servant. She decided to give him that purpose, if he and his lower form of existence were ever to try to even grasp the level of existence that she stood atop. She'd called him her furniture. It had left unseen scars on his mentality, but Keichi was far too overjoyed to so much as care. He'd found something he and only he could do- even if he had to pay the outrageous price that followed.

And so the cruelty of that woman, the woman- or rather the god forsaken _witch_ that took residence in the body of an innocent ten year old girl came upon him. But he had a small understanding about why she was filled with such hate. It was because of that cursed existence that no matter how high above him it was she wanted out of so desperately. She wanted to be back down where he was, even if she would never say it or even hint at it in the slightest. But the way she acted- it was as if she already knew that he had his doubts about her cruelty and was trying her absolute hardest to get him to doubt what he believed. It almost worked.

It hadn't been all that wonderful adjusting to this, especially the day after, when Rika arrived at school that morning with Satoko, greeting him as if nothing had happened. She'd even patted him on the head when he'd lost a game of cards. But it was later that day when, during Mion's game of hide and seek (zombie edition) and the two were secluded in the shed that her mask fell apart. His face of bewilderment and the fact that he was near his breaking point caused her to embrace him as if to take pity on him. He'd seen something that she had probably never intended for him to see. She probably was merciful, somewhere deep down despite the outward darkness she emitted. That was the only display of pure, un-darkened affection that she ever gave him.

Of course Shion was still in the dark about all of this, and would always be in the dark about this. He'd eventually decided to act upon his feelings that he held for the younger Sonozaki and chose to accept the ramifications of what he'd done. He'd found Rika to be far more forgiving that he'd ever expected. Perhaps deep down she was still the pure hearted girl she appeared to be around anyone else besides him. So he fully opened himself to Shion, revealing every aspect of himself to her even though he knew she was hiding more than he ever would know. Everything except for his tie to Rika. That was the one thing that he kept distant from her, no matter how much he cared about her.

"…So you understand that whatever I say you must do, no matter what. Because that was the purpose I gave you as my furniture."

"Yes. I do."

She brought her face closer to his, moving her head close to his ear.

She whispered ever so softly, but the sheer malice in her voice was so clear it was as if she'd been screaming.

"Kill Teppei Houjou. Throw him into that pit, but make sure he's still conscious. Cut off every one of his limbs. Break every single bone in his body, but don't snap his neck. Set him on fire too. Make him suffer. Leave nothing left of him, not even a single ash. He must be _gone. Completely and utterly E R A S E D._"

"…Right. I understand. I'll do as you ask." He spoke. He did hesitate with his response, but she was certain that this was probably what he had been planning from the start.

She grinned, right before placing a small kiss beneath his ear. "Good…." After that, she slowly and softly slid her tongue down his neck before placing at small kiss at its base. It was the worst feeling in the world- mainly because that was what she wanted it to be.

"So you understand…I guess you could leave now…But before you go…"

Keichi already knew what was coming.

She gripped his hand and slowly moved it to the hem of the green sundress she had been wearing. At this point he'd become far too familiar with this act and moved off of memory at that point.

What came next was the impact of this witch's cruelty upon him. A cruelty that was in reality sadness. And it was the only form of sadness that she could feel.

* * *

><p>Upon Keichi's removal from Rika's presence he decided that it would be best to seek out Shion. After all, tonight was the night. And they only had so much time left before they would cover their hands in the blood of Satoko's uncle, and despite the fact that doing so would save her he knew that the both of them still had their doubts. Shion would most likely have been far more willing to do something like this if Satoko wasn't involved, but the chance that Satoko could break was still there. They didn't want to risk it, but they had no choice.<p>

Mion didn't approve in the slightest when she was told of the idea. Of course at this point Keichi was certain that Mion couldn't really understand how much Shion had cared about Satoko despite what she knew- which was more than Keichi knew, at that- and had decided to abandon her sister's desperate request.

It turned out that Shion had returned to Keichi's house. How long she had been there he wasn't sure. She had apparently done some cleaning, so he assumed that she was there for a decent amount of time.

"You took your time." She remarked as he entered the house, shortly before embracing him.

"Sorry about that. I had some last minute mental preparation to do."

"So you're finally ready, huh?"

"Yeah. And you?"

"Yeah. I'll do whatever we need to."

"Aright then." He smiled softly at her, before his face turned grim. "We need to modify our plan a bit. So this is what we're going to do."

Keichi then explained the new goal for their plan. He didn't tell her that Rika had come up with the plan, but he made a point to tell her that it would be far more gruesome than their original plot. In the end, she just smiled and nodded anyway.

* * *

><p>It was right around seven thirty when Teppei received the call from the police station, stating that there had been some sort of issue with his custody of Satoko. If only he knew what fate would befall him then perhaps tragedy may have been avoided. But the soon to be killers' resolve was far too strong. In the end he got on his rather shoddy motorcycle after leaving Satoko to her incredibly small amount of privacy and headed down the road to the main part of town where he could get this situation resolved so he would be able to return to his newly appointed servant as normal.<p>

He only made it about a half a mile down the road before a baseball bat suddenly popped out from the woods, positioned so if he kept driving forward it would collide with his skull land doubtlessly kill him. He couldn't see the person holding the bat, but he was certain it was someone fairly short. Luckily- or rather unluckily- his reflexes were decent enough he managed to pull the motorcycle to a stop.

"Dude, what the fuck-"

It was then that the arms of Shion Sonozaki appeared from within the shrubbery and hoisted him off the bike and into the concealed woods.

"Gah, what the hell!" He tried to struggle. He truly did. He managed to break free of Shion if only for a moment, but at that point Keichi had already brought the bat- ironically labeled as being a belonging of Satoshi- down on his left arm. He howled in pain before he fell back.

"Ok, look, I'll give you anything you want. You want money? You want my house? Hey, I've got a little maid at home that you guys could-"

Shion brought her foot down on his face. She'd definitely broken his nose- the desired effect.

"Read this." Keichi spoke. He pointed the base of the bat in his face.

"H-huh?"

"Read it. What does it say?" Keichi's voice was so devoid of life- it was as if he'd been completely replaced by some ruthless monster. His killer intent seeped from his voice.

"S….Satoshi…Houjou."

"You know who that is?" Shion spoke.

He didn't reply.

Keichi stomped on his face.

"Gah!" He cried.

"You know who that is?" Keichi repeated.

"…Y-Yeah…"

"And you know why he's dead?" Shion spoke, the malice clearly present.

"Cuz…He…I don't know, dammit!"

"It's because his aunt- not to mention _you_- were the worst people in the whole world. You made his life miserable. And he ended up dead because he couldn't take it." Shion's voice was filled more with despair than hatred.

"N-Not…My problem…." He chuckled. It seemed that he accepted his fate and decided he'd speak his mind.

Shion didn't like that. Not one bit. She drew the knife from her pocket and dealt the first blow. She sliced off his left thumb and index finger at the same time with the long blade.

He screamed.

She broke the rest of his fingers one by one before she continued to hack away.

He screamed.

"You're the one to blame. And you tried to do the same thing to Satoko. So you're going to die. Slowly." Keichi spoke. He reached for the motorcycle and tossed on its side. He managed to lift it and moved it between Teppei's legs.

He grinned. "You wanna try something, punk?" He suddenly screamed again from Shion having cut off another finger.

"I'm getting tired of that smile of yours." Keichi then punched him as hard as he could right in the mouth, knocking out several of his front teeth. "Much better." Keichi didn't even grin. His face remained ever locked in that murderous scowl.

Shion repeated her motion to the other hand, before suddenly remembering something.

"So when do we set him on fire?"

Teppei's eyes widened.

"After we cut off the rest of his limbs. That was the plan, right?"

"What the hell…." He stared almost in horror as they mulled over the method that they had decided on to kill him.

Shion then started to stab his kneecaps, effectively breaking his legs in their entirety. They couldn't dismember him without him bleeding to death at this point, but they could still do this without much issue. In the end Keichi suddenly remembered the motorcycle he'd positioned and decided that now would be the best time. He figured out in a short time how to rev the motor, but Teppei still couldn't figure out what he was going to do.

Keichi started to move it forward ever so slightly.

Oh, now he understood.

And he had to scream.

The bike tore through him, breaking apart everything in its way. Eventually the front wheel ended up getting stuck due to the large amounts of flesh keeping it in place. Keichi managed to remove it without much issue.

"Ok, there should be some sort of gas tank…"

"We're done already?"

"He's gonna bleed out anyway. Might as well get this over with."

"If you say so."

"Anyway, can't you drive one of these?"

"A motorcycle? Why would I be able to drive one of those? I don't really need to drive, you know."

"Eh, whatever. Just help me find the gas tank."

It only took them a few minutes to locate it. During this period of time Teppei had started to lose consciousness.

"Alright. Let's toss him in."

The two lifted his body with some difficulty and tossed him into the nearby pit they had dug. Being relatively stupid, he didn't know what they were planning until they stood with the tank over their heads as they poured the gasoline into the pit. Some of the gasoline seeped through the open spaces where his teeth had once been and made its way into his throat. It was the worst taste.

Mion drew a match from her pocket. She almost hesitated, but she lit the match and with Keichi standing at her side she tossed it into the pit. The gasoline ignited almost instantly.

He screamed. With what little life he had left he screamed once again.

It was almost over. It took three hours for his body to cremate fully.

"Okay…Now for the last part." They salvaged as much of the ashes as they could. This was, from their point of view, the worst part of the entire ordeal. But in the end there was really no other way to quickly dispose of the ashes while ensuring that no one would ever be able to find them.

But moments before the deal was sealed Shion tried to take the burden that came with this last part all for herself, even though they promised to do it together. Keichi stopped her, however, and took it all for himself instead.

"…Why did you do that?"

"I was going to ask you the same."

They kissed again, but this time just for the sake of preserving their sanity.

And all the while they didn't notice the cold, menacing glare that pierced the dark forest.

* * *

><p>Teppei Houjou had gone completely missing. There had been no traces of the man left, and there was no evidence sans the gasoline wiped motorcycle, the closed ditch, and the pair of sunglasses found on the side of the road. He was most likely dead, but the police had no definitive way to prove it.<p>

The days went on. Mion was well aware of what they had done, but she managed to forgive them after a period of time. But something was offered in exchange first.

It was the day after the ordeal. Mion called Keichi to her house. She knew that Shion would be gone for the time being, having work at Angel Mort to occupy her and now would be the best time to address this issue.

Keichi sat in the center of what appeared to be a visiting room. He wasn't sure given how pretty much all of the rooms on this estate looked identical. Mion sat across from her in the formal reclined position that she always took when in the presence of visitors to the estate.

She was silent for a few minutes but eventually decided to spoke up. She was blunt.

"I know about you and nee-san."

Choosing to dwell on the fact that she "knew" rather than the fact she'd used the term "nee-san", Keichi grimaced. But his grimace would soon turn to shock, given what she would say next.

"You know that she's just using you, right?"

"What?" Keichi almost couldn't believe what she was saying.

Shion-use him? Impossible. He knew she loved him. There was no doubting it.

"Haven't you noticed?" Mion's voice was cold. "How she still so avidly talks about Satoshi- although you're not around for the most part when that happens. But if she was really thinking of you she'd never bring his name up. Ever."

"What makes you say that?" Keichi sounded irritated. Mion almost flinched but quickly recovered.

"You still don't understand, do you…? I guess I have no choice…" Mion reached into her robe to reveal something. Keichi didn't make as sound. Deep down he had a strange feeling that whatever Mion was going to pull out would change everything.

"You know what her birthday is, correct?"

"…Yeah."

"Look at this. It's my birth certificate."

Keichi took the old sheet of paper from her extended arm. He looked it over. Without a doubt, this was Mion's birth certificate. But the point that stood out was the time of birth. Given how the two were twins, the only thing defining who was older (and thus the one who would inherit the clan from their grandmother) was the time of birth, that Shion had given Keichi one time when it came up in a conversation. It was Shion's time of birth, yet it was Mion's certificate. It certainly wasn't forged, given the authentication stamp that not even a former Yakuza family could get their hands on.

"This is…"

"Shion's time of birth, right?"

"What are you trying to say with this…?"

"Simply put- Sonozaki Shion is not Sonozaki Shion."

"…" Keichi was still having a hard time grasping what she was saying.

"I'll elaborate." Mion's tone hadn't become any lighter.

"It was several years ago. It was actually right around the time where the Houjou family became a group of outcasts. The time came for the dragon tattoo to be branded upon the future head of the Sonozaki family. But doing so meant that the future head was completely bound to the family's will. This duty fell to my sister….Sonozaki Mion."

"Then you are…"

"I'm the real Sonozaki Shion."

Keichi stared at her dumbfounded. Never did he imagine something like this.

"At the time, nee-san was in love with Satoshi- who coincidentally was deeply hated by the entire family. She knew this, but despite the dull certainty that she'd never be able to love him she did everything she could to make his life better. She went a tad bit insane in the process-only after our grandmother ripped out one of her fingernails for refusing to act in the family's best interest but in her own instead. You're following all of this so far?"

"Yeah." Keichi nodded his head slightly. 'Mion's' expression became a bit more sullen.

"When the time came for the branding, nee-san knew that she would never be able to escape the will of the family even though she adored Satoshi. So we made a deal. I made her promise that she'd love Satoshi for the rest of her life. She agreed, and so I became Sonozaki Mion and she took my place."

"My god…"

"That is why I bear the tattoo instead of her. Things went alright for the days that followed, but in the end Satoshi ended up dead and Shion lost most of her heart along with him. As you probably already know, Satoshi died because of his aunt and uncle. That was the drive for Shion's revenge. And she used you so she could share the blame for her own actions."

"But…How are you so sure that she used me in the first place?" Keichi's voice was more distressed than angry.

"Kei-chan….She loves Satoshi. She's so in love with him that she'd do absolutely _anything _for him. She would never abandon him, after all the suffering she put herself through to be able to love him. Not even for you- you, who look almost identical to Satoshi."

"I-Identical…?"

"The only real difference is that your hair is a different color. Otherwise, you're practically a replica. That's why she was drawn to you. And for that reason only…" Mion's voice died a bit when she saw his face spasm.

He almost didn't believe her. But then something occurred to him that he had never even thought about before.

Just how many times had she apologized for bringing up Satoshi in any given conversation? Ten times? Twelve? Twenty?

It all suddenly hit him, almost as hard as a head on collision with a truck.

She was still in love with that dead boy. She'd taken Teppei's life for Satoshi's sake, not for Satoko's. She'd tried to swallow the ashes for Satoshi's sake, not for his.

He'd been played rather nicely.

"…."

"Kei-chan…I'm sorry. But you had to know."

"I know." He said, almost too quickly.

"…So here's the deal." Mion spoke again, finally revealing her underlying intentions for this meeting.

"…?"

"I'll cover for the two of you. I'll let everything go. I don't care what you do after this; I'll cover for everything you do. You just have to give me one thing."

"I'll give you whatever you want. Just name it-"

In that instant she closed the distance between them. Keichi had certainly been kissed before, but this was a bit different. Mion was essentially just pressing her lips to his- there was no feeling. It was as if the simple act alone was just there so he knew what her feelings were- or rather what they would have been.

"That's all I wanted." She smiled sadly at him. "That's everything…You can leave."

Keichi almost rose to his feet…

…but decided to close the distance between them again.

Almost immediately after leaving the Sonozaki residence roughly an hour later, Keichi went straight to the only person in the world he could confide all of this sadness in. Even though she was the cruelest witch in the world, she was the only one who he could talk to. After all, who knows what secrets the rest of them had? But when it came to Rika- he was almost certain he knew just about everything about her. There were few to no secrets between them- even if it was unintentional on her part.

"So Mion told you the entire story, did she…"

"Yes."

"And you believe her?"

"Yes. The proof was undeniable."

"Hm….That's true. The proof is there, and yes, I am certain that they swapped places back then. I didn't know it was for Satoshi, though."

"This was all her doing in the end, wasn't it?"

"Shion's doing? Of course. If what we know is the truth then she facilitated everything that happened this time."

"So then…What should I do….?"

"…Do you hate her?"

"Do I…hate her….?"

"If you hate her, then you simply have to admit it. Do you hate her for dragging you down to hell with her on the pretense of love and forcing you to take the cup of blood along with her? Do you hate her for convincing you to love her and for shattering your already failing heart?"

"…"

"Do you hate her…Simply for being alive? Do you hate not only her, but Satoko as well, for being too much of a coward to resolve her problem on her own? Do you hate them both for taking advantage of you…?" Rika's grin grew progressively wicked as she went on.

"…"

At this point, Rika encircled Keichi with her much smaller frame. Then she whispered into his ear- the only thing that ever seemed to work on him without fail.

"Do you hate them, Keichi?"

"….Yes…I…hate…them…"

"Then kill them. Kill them both. Bring them both here and we'll kill them together."

"Kill them…together…."

"Don't be afraid. My adoration for you is very real. But I'm sure you know that already…"

"…Yes…Yes, of course…."

"So then do it. We'll close this chapter together."

"Yes…Yes…We'll…kill them both…."

Keichi's newfound resolve was absolute. This would happen. He'd kill for his own sake this time.

* * *

><p>The plan was to wait for Satoko to return to school, confront her about the incident, and then take her along with Shion to visit Rika. There they would both be beheaded. It would be over just like that.<p>

Satoko remained at her house for a period of time after the incident before finally returning to school. She still looked miserable.

Keichi and Shion were confused. The absence of Teppei meant that she should have recovered. Rika on the other hand seemed to have already known that this sort of thing was going to happen.

After they questioned the cowering Satoko, she exploded.

"Yes, my uncle was home last night! He hit me, and made me cook him dinner, and then he made me clean the whole house and he didn't let me sleep at all!" She nearly cried. She left the room shortly afterward.

It was needless to say that Keichi and Shion were in total shock. There was no way Teppei could have been alive.

And so the two decided to investigate.

Upon arriving at Satoko's house they immediately searched for her. She was nowhere to be seen, but eventually Keichi stumbled into the bathroom and found her drowning in the hot water.

Once she regained consciousness, it appeared that she had gone insane to a high degree.

"Satoko…You're uncle isn't here."

"What are you saying..? He told me to take a bath and-"

"Satoko, it's impossible." Shion spoke softly, trying to hold the girl for comfort. "He's dead. He can't have been here."

"But-But-But…" Her eyes were wide, most likely due to her current state of shock.

"He can't hurt you anymore. He's gone. We killed him, Satoko. We did it so we could save you…"

"Save me? Save me? Save me?"

Keichi decided to play into his role. "Yes, Satoko. We tried to save you. You wouldn't have been able to keep on living like that."

"But…but…My whole…"

She paused before she nearly howled.

"My whole family is dead!"

"…." Both of them were completely silent. But upon watching the others face for movement they both suddenly nodded.

"You don't have to worry."

"Huh?" Her face was filled with an expression of hurt and doubt. It was so unlike Satoko, but Keichi had realized by this point that this is who she was.

Shion lightly touched her shoulder.

"You don't have to be alone. We'll protect you, so you don't have to be afraid."

"That's right. We'll be your new family, Satoko. And Rika can be your new little sister."

"…"

"You don't have to worry. We'll make everything work. So all you have to do is trust your older siblings. That's all you have to do."

"…Shion-san…Kei-chan…."

"We'll stay with you, so you don't have to be afraid anymore. We'll protect you to the end."

Satoko didn't respond with words. Instead she cried as the two of them embraced her.

"Nii-nii…Shion-san…"

"…Now, let's go find Rika. We'll help you back into her house, okay?" Keichi spoke in a soft voice.

Satoko nodded. Keichi and Shion smiled at each other. They both knew that without the other they never would have gone this far. Indeed, Satoko's ramblings that Teppei was still alive had almost gotten to them. But because they were together they could rely on the other to prove that their memories were in fact true. It was through that love that they were able to kill and achieve their ultimate goal.

Or at least that was the illusion that Shion tried to instill in him. But he'd seen through her. Now every move she made was a deceptive act that Keichi could now see so clearly through.

They decided to head to Rika's house immediately. It was a good thing too. There would be no one visiting the shrine at this hour.

It seemed that everything would go according to plan after all…

* * *

><p>…Until Keichi, in a state of pure shock, found Rika's rotting and dissected corpse behind the offertory box.<p>

He screamed.

And the rest of this tale is atypical.

He lifts the axe that sat at her side. Satoko, who had been with Shion the entire time, stumbles upon the scene.

She screams.

She runs as fast as she could. Shion tries to pursue her, but Keichi was far more important at the moment. She helps him to his feet and the two of them run in the direction that Satoko had disappeared in.

It takes them fifteen minutes to find her at the bridge.

Keichi tries to explain the circumstances of what had happened. Satoko doesn't believe him. Clearly she's being afflicted by something, but he can't determine what. As he talks she just becomes more and more distressed.

She says she loved them. She says she wanted them to be her new family. But she can't forgive them for killing Rika. Ever.

Keichi is about to rebel, but Satoko suddenly reveals that she knows far more then she was letting on. She asks in agony why Keichi would do such a thing to Rika- the girl he supposedly loved. She had apparently had been hiding near that shed on that first day when Rika had embraced him. She knew all about his relationship with the cruelest witch in the world. And now Shion knew. Keichi can't respond, and in his hesitation Satoko takes the opportunity to complete her suicide by jumping from the bridge. Shion screams before turning to Keichi.

"You betrayed me…All this time I thought you…" She says with fear and anger in her eyes.

Keichi turns to her, the glint of murderous intent in his eyes gleaming. "You betrayed me first."

He swings the axe at her, which she manages to avoid even in her state of confusion. She gets far enough away from him that the next slash would never reach her. She then reached for the weapon that sat in her pocket and ran at him with it. He managed to avoid, ready to deliver the final swing.

But she pushes him at that moment and the weight of the axe causes him to trip. Keichi falls to his death without another word.

Shion sighs with relief. She had managed to fend off her attacker.

But she suddenly realizes something.

With both Satoko and Keichi dead, and with Mion who would doubtlessly be turned against her-

Shion had no one.

No one at all.

In the end, it was Just as Rika had said. The inevitable end to Hinamizawa. Everything Keichi had said he had turned his back on. He said he could stop things. He said he could save Satoko. He said his purpose gave him strength. He'd realized that Rika had turned him on them simply because she knew that he was incapable of fulfilling his promises regardless. As he dies he does not hate her. He silently thanks her for making him realize his own folly.

But he failed. He failed at his purpose for living- simply helping others. But only because others wouldn't help him.

It seems fate cannot be beaten after all.

* * *

><p><em>Double Demon Chapter Result: <em>

Ryuugu Rena- Was not in the story.  
>Sonozaki Shion- Trapped in her own sorrow. She disappeared into the haze of Hinamizawa.<br>Sonozaki Mion- Missing. It is said she escaped the village, only to return twelve years later and die.  
>Maebara Keichi- Death by love- the most gruesome of them all, yet the most painless of them all.<br>Houjou Satoko- Suicide from the bridge. She could not face her fears, or the dreaded Syndrome.  
>Furude Rika- A death she has faced far too many times. But her memories of Maebara will carry on.<br>**The Unreliable Narrator** (Faceless) - Currently laughing(?) at the goats and their reaction to this tale.


	6. Jade Jealousy Chapter

_**Author's Note**_

Considering how short this one is, I suppose I'll post it now.

Also, concerning an issue my reviewer brought up regarding the Sonozaki twins from the last chapter, I was referring to the time of birth as presented on the birth certificate, although in the context of the chapter it's hard to tell since I still used the word birthday. I'll amend it shortly as to not confuse future readers. As far as the "nee-san" bit is concerned, I was placing more emphasis on the incoming reveal. I've made that a tad bit clearer as well. Whether or not there's unreliable narration elsewhere in that scene...I'm not saying there isn't.

But yes, innacurate information that goes against the canon _does _count as unreliable narration. This just wasn't an instance of it. This was just me being unclear in the wrong place. (*facepalms*)

Now on with the chapter, **another warning: beware some absolutely non-explicit NTR later on in the chapter. **Rather obvious going in since the chapter is called "Jade Jealousy." I'm still wondering myself if it counts as NTR but just to be perfectly safe I'll label it as such.

* * *

><p><strong>Jade Jealousy Chapter<strong>

_This story exists for the purpose of entertaining a certain demographic of the goat-base, with a small amount of user-based truth added for good measure. This story, unlike the previous stories, will be far shorter and encompass a much smaller range of information. The lack of spoken dialogue in this tale only adds to this. Beware that this tale is both gruesome and twisted as usual._

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (Perspective character gets the bold):  
><em>Ryuugu Rena  
>Sonozaki Shion<br>Sonozaki Mion  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Houjou Satoko  
>Furude Rika<br>**The Unreliable Narrator** (Faceless)

Morning came to the peaceful village of Hinamizawa. It was as standard as any given day this past year and it would seem that the cicadas had started their daily mantra once again. The sun rose over the village as if to bless it with its rays.

In the event of the moon rising, however, quite the opposite was seen. The appearance of the moon was seen as the ultimate omen. The moon signified death in this village, given the history the village had. Indeed, its days were standard and normal, but over the last several decades the evenings became signs of darkness and death. The moon was not a symbol of light in the darkness. Instead, it was seen as the symbol of the inevitable destruction and ruin that would follow it.

It began with the dam project and its opposition. The people had opposed the dam project that would result in the total destruction of their village. As the opposition grew stronger the demand for the project to be shut down grew to such astronomic proportions that in the end the tensions between the people and the company resulted in murder. The Sonozaki Family, an offshoot of a major Yakuza branch orchestrated the murder of the project's lead construction worker.

The Sonozaki family had seen some serious issues afterward. Not only was every municipal government organization within five hundred miles from Hinamizawa on the family's case regarding the supposed but never confirmed killing, but the number of residents in the village began to drastically decrease after that. To keep the Yakuza connections buried the Sonozaki family needed a method to both keep people from being inclined to leaving the village and to bring in a new crop of visitors to repopulate the village before the population became so small that inbreeding would be the last resort to survive on the sacred land of Hinamizawa. This was the greatest fear of the Sonozaki family, or at least its head and the heads of the other sizable families in the village.

That was why when Keichi Maebara moved into the village that Mion Sonozaki was given explicit orders to keep him completely ignorant of the events that had transpired in the village at that time. It was a simple task, although it meant that when the Watanagashi festival came around she would have to constantly be watching him.

Watanagashi came and passed, and Keichi remained ever ignorant. He _had_ heard of the death of the construction manager, but Mion wasn't all that concerned about it. Eventually, however, Mion's grandmother suggested something that Mion was completely shocked to hear. She had believed that Keichi was simply hiding his suspicion and he would eventually request to leave the village in a short period of time.

She wanted her to seduce Keichi, in order to stay close to him, and furthermore to impregnate herself with his child to prevent him from ever leaving.

Mion had already been captured by Keichi in that regard. For awhile, it had simply been a standard schoolgirl crush. But eventually, she began to seriously consider her feelings for him. This assignment only made it that much easier to bring herself to confess to him. Seducing him would be easy, since she was already madly in love with the boy. It was what came afterward that would permanently alter the field.

But she couldn't help but feel guilty- what if Keichi didn't want anything to do with her? Would manipulating him be the right thing to do? Of course she knew it wasn't what she should have done but there was little choice for her in the matter.

One day, however, her anxiety and fears were left behind. Keichi had offered to bring her home with him. She knew exactly what this meant and knew what would immediately follow their arrival at his house. His parents were gone for the time being and he was alone for the rest of the month. Mion knew that once they were alone that she would be forced to execute the second part of her grandmother's plan.

At the time, she didn't know exactly what having sex with Keichi would do to the boy. But if she _did _know, she never would have even accepted his invitation home.

Mion was very nervous regardless. She could tell that he felt the same, but Mion had her duty- she had to become pregnant at all costs. Her orders entitled that she would constantly repeat the events of this night over and over until she became pregnant, and even more so afterward. It was cruel, unusual, and very different from how her grandmother would normally act. But Mion had no choice.

Eventually, the two finally overcame their fear and Keichi, with a profound sense of lust that he mistook for love, brought her to his room. Mion knew that this act would spell doom for them both, and even though she loved Keichi immensely, she still had to hide her fear and anguish.

Of course, in the three hours that followed, the only thing she could think about was Keichi. And about how incredibly well he was doing for his first time with a woman. Eventually Mion was forced to take matters into her own hands, however. Mion had insisted on having sex unprotected after the first round or so, masking her true intention behind sweet words that she had formulated over the course of the evening. Keichi had completely fallen for it and told her he loved her, and it broke her heart.

The last round of their love making sealed the deal- she could almost feel it. It was quite possibly the most amazing feeling she had ever felt. And it was hers alone. Only she would experience this feeling- this feeling of Keichi intertwined her and the pure ecstasy that followed their love making.

Afterward, needless to say, Mion spent the night with Keichi. Also needless to say, that evening was most certainly not the last time the two had sex.

At the end of the week, Mion was able to confirm that she was pregnant. Aside from having completed the task assigned to her, she was overjoyed. She'd have a child- the child of her beloved Keichi. It became the greatest event in her entire life, at least prior to the child being born, she would tell herself. She felt an overwhelming sense of joy and love, for both the child and Keichi. But by the time she reached his house to tell him he'd already left. So she went to the Furude Shrine for some unexplored reason.

Rika Furude was the first to find out. She was shocked (_very _shocked, in fact) at first, but very quickly became as happy about the child as she was. She was so happy; in fact, it came to the point where Mion could almost smell the deceit that covered her words.

Rena found out next. She immediately switched to her "take it ho-ome" mode and almost dragged Mion home with her at the prospect of there being a newborn in the village. Mion didn't sense any sort of hateful feelings coming from the girl. If only she knew. If only she hadn't been so naïve as to believe that Rena wasn't in love with Keichi. Perhaps if she did, _it_ could have been avoided.

Following Rena was her own sister. Shion congratulated her before proposing a rather interesting idea. She suggested _not telling Keichi_ about the child until a certain number of days had passed, perhaps after it became slightly more noticable. Mion didn't think ill of it, although she assumed that Rena would blab about it by the end of the day anyhow.

Of course, still reeling in her own fantasy, Mion accepted her terms. Although by the end of the day, she would regret her decision greatly.

It was roughly 8:30 at night when _it _happened. The event where "Keichi" would be forever lost to her. Mion had learned of the plan only ten minutes before it was sprung into motion.

Keichi was being set up. As a way of keeping him tied down to the Sonozaki family to be used as an example of how the outside world and the village could interact, Keichi would be used to his full extent. Mion now understood why Shion had told her not to mention the baby to him.

Shion had been designated as a backup for Mion. But since Mion had succeeded, Shion's job was essentially to seduce Keichi better than she had done. Essentially the plan was to tie him down with two children from the same family, with Keichi consenting in both instances. Somehow, over the course of the last week, she'd succeeded, but only by twisting Keichi's image into that of Satoshi.

Mion was heartbroken. She was enraged with her sister but also felt sorry for her. She was enraged with Keichi but also cried for him. But in the end, she just cried for herself, alone in her room, as she heard the sounds of Keichi and Shion's sex, louder than he'd ever been with her. Shion's constant moaning only made the situation worse. Their moaning became so loud that Mion could no longer hear anything else. She didn't even care about the river of tears falling from her eyes.

But the very end of their love making was by far the worst of it. Shion mimicked Mion's first evening with him to the very core. But in the end, she asked Keichi for one thing- she wanted him to leave Mion for her.

And he said yes.

Mion wasn't sure if she'd heard him right.

He said it again.

And her entire world fell to pieces.

The following night, she saw them. They didn't see her, but she could see them through a small hole in the wall separating their rooms. She saw Keichi, clearly doing this of his own violation. Shion's own face was beating red from both exhaustion and pure lust.

It was the most disgusting thing she had ever seen in her entire life.

But it became far worse than that. It turned out that Shion's orders went far deeper than simply becoming pregnant, which she successfully did by the end of their first three nights together. She would at some point be married to Keichi in order to bind him to the village even further.

It all focused around the prospect of having to provide for two different families under the same roof at the same time. With two children from two different mothers from the same family, while being married to one of the mothers under the pretense of being exempt from one of the children as granted by their grandmother, Keichi would be unable to leave the village no matter how hard he tried. If he ever divorced Shion, the exemption granted to him by the Sonozaki house would be evoked and he would be forced legally to take responsibility for his child with Mion, the head of the Sonozaki house who could not leave the village.

But the first issue at hand was getting him to stay permanently in the first place. That was Shion's job- get him to love her to the point he'd do anything she asked him to do. From there on out the exemption would just seem as a way to make his life easier for him rather than what it was truly purposed for. Assuming that Shion did her job, Keichi would not consider leaving the village until he would divorce one of them upon realizing he had been tricked, thus making Shion the better choice to start out with. Having Keichi bound to Mion first would not do well for their external appearances, as divorcing the head of the house to stay with the lesser sibling would be disastrous compared to the opposite. Keeping them both tied to him would simply be unethical, and therefore would not suffice as an option.

Shion agreed to the plan in full, despite the fact that she knew what her fate would amount to. Mion was certain that Shion wouldn't leave the village regardless of the circumstances. After all, Keichi was all that remained of Satoshi in her life. That was probably the deciding factor to her agreement.

Mion was just as shocked to realize that her grandmother was willing to exploit Shion's love for Satoshi, even though at one point in time she had accepted it. She was unsure as to why she'd suddenly completely changed her perspective on their relationship that never was.

But what would keep Keichi from divorcing his second wife? Simply put, he would be unable to. He would not be able to leave the village because Mion could not. As such, they could essentially keep him locked down as permanently as they wanted to. They knew it was completely illegal, but if Keichi ever tried to invest in external assistance, he would be able to arrange for the Sonozaki family to be handled in court for exploitation, assuming that both Shion and Mion would deliver testimony against the family (Mion knew she would, and Shion would probably do the same if it meant a chance at winning her Satoshi-look alike back). But in the village he was essentially at their mercy. Even if either of the twins suddenly decided to listen to their consciences, in the village their movement patterns would be just as easily monitored.

This was all done to ensure that the secrets of the village would remain a secret- by keeping the only opposing factor under the family's watch constantly without any amount of blood being spilt, while simultaneously using him to further the village's external relations. Apparently the Kimiyoshi family already approved the plan, either out of true acceptance or fear that the Sonozaki family would ultimately turn on the lesser family if they turned it down. In the end, Keichi would essentially be bound to the family forever, and Mion would as a result be trapped in a loveless relationship forever. All of this Mion overheard when her grandmother called Shion to her for a private meeting.

Of course Mion would try to act first to prevent everything altogether. But in the end, she became a tad too obsessed with the idea that Keichi didn't love her and wouldn't ever love her again.

Mion decided to tell Keichi about their child. Keichi didn't look to well after that. It turned out that Shion went to him with the same news a few hours later. Mion didn't know what his reaction was, but they were clearly still together, given the sounds they made that night. It was infuriating. She was on the verge of collapse. But in the end it wasn't Keichi cheating on her. It wasn't Rena's constant shadow over her that despised her for loving Keichi. It wasn't her grandmother's heartless orders.

It was when she had swapped places at Angel Mort with Shion as part of a "personal request" when she found out that Keichi had been with every single girl that worked at the shop. One had even been planning to go out on a date with him that afternoon. She'd left "work" early that day and returned home, only to run into Rena.

It was almost as if she knew before even asking her what the answer was.

Rena told her about her night with Keichi, even though she could swear that he had been with Shion every night for the last week. Her description was far too detailed to be fake. But what made it far worse was Rena's amused, demonic smile that pierced Mion's soul. She described clearly and disturbingly accurately her body reacted to Keichi's and worded it in such a way that Mion couldn't help but hate her. She then taunted her, daring her to kill her.

Unfortunately for Rena, Mion obliged.

That night Mion broke into Rena's house, apparently while Keichi was there. As with her sister, Mion heard their love making up to the point where she couldn't stand to listen to them any longer. She broke through the door. Apparently Keichi had fled the room through the open window while Rena sat and screamed in horror upon Mion's sight. Mion would not grant her a peaceful death.

She took the axe in her hand and went to work. She slashed wildly, but she didn't hear sounds of terror and fear. She heard Rena calling Keichi's name over and over again. Mion kept chopping at her. Rena's moaning drove her to stab her all the more rapidly to the point where all that was left was Rena's torso and head. Mion was tired of this senseless battle, and so she drove the axe through her one final time, effectively ending her life.

That was the not the finishing blow.

She cut off her head and kicked it out the window like a soccer ball.

And by some twist of fate, the following morning there were not one, not two, not three, but four bodies, each a friend to the others.

Rena Ryugu, whose death has already been described.

Rika Furude. Her insides removed from her body by force and her lifeless corpse tossed behind the shrine's offering box. An axe was nearby.

Keichi Maebara. His heart completely missing via the hole in his chest.

Shion Sonozaki. The words "Satoshi-kun" engraved into her forehead.

And by the end of the week, they would be joined by one hundred additional bodies- those of the people of Hinamizawa. For without the Queen, the hive fell to pieces and the village was lost to darkness for all eternity.

And it was all because of a single woman, who let things go unpunished, out of pure love for one man, until she could no longer tolerate her now cursed existence.

Her body was never found.

But she was free that way. Never to be betrayed again. Free to wander the depths with the only remaining sentiment of her love- the child she carried within her, the testament of her love with her now deceased beloved. Down, to the bottom of the pit of being so she can be free of all fear.

Out, brief, yet eternal candle. We pray that when you awaken the world will be kinder to you.

* * *

><p><em>Jade Jealousy Chapter Result: <em>

Ryuugu Rena- The first of many, a gruesome death indeed.  
>Sonozaki Shion- Claimed by the avarice of her beloved sister.<br>Sonozaki Mion- Missing. It is said she returned to the village years later only to be killed.  
>Maebara Keichi- Death by love- but this time a love that turned ugly.<br>Houjou Satoko- Burned to death while counting to ten thousand in the shower at her own home.  
>Furude Rika- More and more of the same. Her death goes unchanged.<br>**The Unreliable Narrator** (Faceless) – Wondering why he never mentioned the doll.


	7. Suspicious Fragrance Chapter

**_Author's Note_**

Hooray for finding the time to type out the next four releases.  
>Addressing a question my reviewer had, NTR is essentially setting up a pairing in a Visual Novel, and have one of the two characters cheat on the other one, having the other find out. There's a bit more to it, like humiliating the person being cheated on, but it's commonly used in really explicit ways in a lot of VNs. It's a really hated genre when used like that, because the readers generally get angered themselves as they're made to like the original pairing early on in the story before the NTR kicks in. Check the tv tropes page on it for more information.<p>

Also note, a bit of Umineko fanon comes into play but **there are no EP8 spoilers,** so don't be concerned about that. (On the other hand, if you're not experienced with Umineko, I suggest you look up brief details of the characters mentioned in this story as they appear. Or even better, just go read the VNs or watch the terrible anime adaptation of the first four games.)

Also, might I note there is a bit of extra-explicit language later on. Although nothing too terrifying.

* * *

><p><strong>Suspicious Fragrance Chapter <strong>

_Despite this being a short story (the word short in this case being completely subjective), please be aware that the following story has been extracted from the darkest, deepest bowls of the sea of fragments and it has not been properly compared with the user-defined truth of 1983 and may or may not contain any relevant material pertinent to the truth that is presented here. Also be aware that as this is a lost fragment's production that the material is most likely slanderous and decrepit as well as juvenile and outright demonic. This story is truly a story for witches, demons, and wizards, as well as wizard or witch hunters, to read. If you do not fall under any of these categories you are advised to avoid reading this story at the expense of potential clues pertaining to the user-defined truth. _

_Furthermore, the fact that this story exists to begin with is in itself a mystery. How this story came into my possession is still a mystery. I have decided to consider it a sort of miracle that such a story, as falsified as it may possibly be, came into my unworthy hands. The events that you are about to read, while being pivotal to the end result, are seemingly impossible on more than one level. But the user defined truth states otherwise. Therefore, accept them for what they are and discern the truth from the lies._

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

**_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (Perspective character gets the bold): _**

Sonozaki Shion  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Furude Rika  
>Et Al<br>**The Unreliable Narrator** (Faceless)

Morning dawned on the Furude shrine. It was already well into the month of June and the temperature, as it always would, rose drastically. Rika was forced to deal with this heat, but at this point she had become so accustomed to it she probably wouldn't remember what a cold room felt like. After all, she hadn't seen anything but the blazing sun for well over two hundred years. But one thing that had changed was something so seemingly insignificant to someone like her but was far more damaging than the heat.

It was empty and lonely. It made her far more bitter and depressed than she ever had been before. It was so lonely, being in that period of solitude for such a long time before, but at least then she still had Hanyuu. Now it was absolutely terrifying for her. There was no one left in the world that was able to understand what she had gone through. There was no one to stand by her. No one to even vent her sadness on.

What made matters even worse was that she thought she had finally done it. She had achieved that final resolution that she had hoped for. She thought that she had truly triumphed against fate. But perhaps the solution she tried so hard to reach was impossible to hold on to after all.

It was about a month after the peaceful resolution where Takano failed to shoot Hanyuu and was arrested and put away forever. Everyone she knew and cared about was able to move on with their lives. Rena managed to patch things up with her father. Shion was able to visit Satoshi whenever she wanted to in anticipation for the day when he would reawaken. Satoko was able to live peacefully with Shion watching over her and her best friend to return home to. Keichi and Mion even started dating. Everything had been perfect.

But then August came around. And in a flash of light all of that was gone.

As she was still alive, Rika, the container of sorts of the mentally unstable Hinamizawa Syndrome, had yet to vanish completely. Irie had been working on a solution to permanently cure the psychological disease before it ever even appeared within someone. But it only took two months for his work to have been rendered all-for-nothing. Shion arrived at his clinic, having somewhere deep inside realized just what had happened to her and in a desperate cry for help went to the only place where she could be saved- carrying Mion's dismembered head.

In the end, Shion ended up dead after she tried to kill Keichi, but unable to do so, she killed herself. Only a few days later, Satoko came down with the syndrome- and killed Keichi. They never even could verify that he'd been killed, but his disappearance was just cause to pronounce him dead.

The bigger problem was the source. Shion had forced her way into Satoshi's room and contracted the virus from him. Satoko-from coming into contact with Shion's corpse. Of course, it was all purely psychological- Shion, having been unable to stand Satoshi being just out of her reach and Satoko, having lost her surrogate older sister.

Rika had truly thought that this was the end, and so she ended her own life to escape the cycle she wanted nothing to do with anymore.

But then, as if from a dream, _that woman _appeared to her as she floated endlessly in the sea of fragments. That woman with the long dress, and the half circlet completely detached from her head. That woman who did nothing but stare at her sadly and hand Rika the small fragmented object that she called "The Power of Theatergoing." She was so similar to Hanyuu Rika thought that they were the same person for a moment.

But as quickly she had phased into the sea of fragments around her after handing Rika her "prize" as it were, she disappeared entirely.

* * *

><p>And then she awoke in another fragment. It was more of the same- Satoko's uncle had returned. Keichi- but this time with Shion at his side- killed her. The power she'd been given was likely unlimited- she could relive this cursed chapter of her life as many times as she would ever need now.<p>

But in this universe, as with the fragments she visited with the Theatergoing Shard (as she had dubbed it) after that first one, Keichi is a fragile creature who only desires to have a purpose. Rika wasn't sure if this was closer to the final resolution she desperately desired or simply further away.

But due to this, in this universe she wasn't as alone anymore. Keichi was willing to throw himself on the line for her. She could turn him into whatever she desired. So she simply made him into a person who would succumb to her every will. He did anything she asked. She would beat him, solely to vent her own depression. She would have him fuck her, purely to let out the constantly built up tension within her. She would force her cruelty out on him in unimaginable ways. In fragments where he had already found someone else, she didn't relent in the slightest. He was her puppet in every single way. But it was all really just because she loved him so much she wouldn't ever let him go even if he hated the way he was living. She'd make him hers for all eternity. Perhaps she could live like that.

But she knew she was slowly and steadily dying. Keichi would do whatever she wanted, but could not possibly comprehend her suffering, no matter how much he had claimed to have wanted to. So her depression and loneliness still continued to the point where she simply had sex with Keichi solely for the sake of doing it. She'd faltered quite a bit after that point, going as far as to embrace Keichi out of pure affection, but in the end she'd forced Keichi to stay with her while he was simultaneously dating Shion. That fragment also ended in disaster, but in the end it really didn't matter. She just knew that fate was insurmountable.

It was this morning that she found things changing far more rapidly than she ever thought possible. This morning that was possibly hundreds of years after she obtained the Theatergoing Shard would be singly the most different thing she could ever experience. She had been praying to the shrine, hoping that Hanyuu was pleasantly resting somewhere in another world. She then decided to call Keichi, since she felt like having sex with him that morning. She decided she'd just move him in with her, since his parents would never return from their business trip.

But then she was visited by possibly the strangest person- or rather, the strangest _thing_- that she would ever meet.

* * *

><p>She appeared out of what appeared to be an invisible window that she shattered through. Rika had at first thought that she was simply hallucinating given just her ridiculous outfit. It was entirely pink, with a pumpkin adorned at her waist. It was as if she planned to celebrate Halloween in June. But her face-it was so familiar; she could have sworn it was that evil woman- Miyo Takano- who was staring at her with a look of pure delight on her face.<p>

"So this is where you were hiding, huh Bernkastel?" Rika looked on dumbfounded, although no expression appeared within her darkened eyes.

"Who the hell are you?" Rika didn't even really care that this girl had just appeared quite literally out of nowhere. She was annoying. Her voice was ridiculously high pitched. But even worse was her atitude.

How dare she. How dare she come here, smiling from ear to ear, while Rika was trapped in such a horrible place.

"That's no way to greet your best friend in the whole world!" The girl pouted.

Rika's scowl grew deeper. "I have no idea who you are. Now go back to wherever you came from."

"Ah, that's right…You don't know me. Well, at least can I say I'm your number one fan?"

"I still have no idea who the hell you are. Give me your name or get the hell out of my fragment."

"Oh, I'm being rude! I'm just so excited…I'm the Senate Witch, Rank 34, Lady Lambdadelta." She smiled and held out her hand as for Rika to take it.

"..Who the hell do you think you are, having a name like that…." Rika scowled at her.

"Oh, so you figured it out already? I wouldn't expect anything less from the Witch of Miracles."

"If you're here, then you probably know what happened to me. So tell me. What the hell am I still doing here?"

"Ah, right. I almost got too caught up in our chat." Her face expressed her sudden recollection of her purpose for coming here.

"So what is it? If you don't have anything urgent to do here, then leave."

"You want to know why you're still here? Why the cycle kept going?"

Rika nodded her head without another word.

"Well, let's put it this way- the cycle ended. Rika Furude got out. But you're not exactly Rika Furude. Just like I'm not exactly that Takano woman. I'm like you- a witch. And that little game we both were trapped in finally ended."

"Game? Is that all this is? Some game?" Rika's irritation grew with each word.

"Let me put it this way. You and me- we were pieces. We were being used by our masters to play this game."

"Pieces? What, like a game board?"

"Exactly!" She seemed happy for some strange reason moments before her expression finally became serious. "But you see….The game was postponed. As in infinitely postponed. That's that cycle you got yourself trapped in."

"The cycle…Was a game being postponed? What the hell are you even talking about?"

"It's how we witches work. The only thing that can kill us is boredom. So two witches- two _really nasty _witches played a game, using us as their prized pieces. The witch who made this game- the Game Master- was your player. My player, on the other hand, was the challenger. It was a murder mystery game that your player set up. But something happened mid way through."

Something suddenly hit Rika. She remembered that woman who was strikingly similar to Hanyuu and the Theatergoing Shard she had given her. For some reason she believed this strange girl's story.

"And what was that?" She questions, wanting to know more.

"Your player was in love with my player. I don't want to go into the details. But she granted her a single request. She gave her a slight edge- a single advantage that was gonna make things easier for her. What was it again….? Oh, that's right. It was the…." She suddenly stopped herself.

"Go on. What was it?"

"…It was the absolute certainty- confirmed by myself- that you would be killed absolutely in every scenario once a certain amount of time had passed. It was a guarantee that even if my player couldn't find a way to kill you by the end of the game, you'd still be killed anyway. It fit in the confines of the rules she'd established for the game."

"…."

"But just by doing that, it caused a chain reaction. One of your close friends, someone who could've made it out, would find you and then be killed by default. So the number of guaranteed deaths moves from one to two. And that made the game unsolvable from your player's side. And that was the killer move- a Logic Error."

"Logic…Error…."

"So the game was put on hold forever. My player remained the victor, and she tortured_ you alone _for centuries."

"But…Was it even…"

"Was it your fault? Not at all. You were left behind in your master's place….I, on the other hand, had failed miserably throughout the game, so I was thrown into a similar situation."

Rika understood everything she had said. She'd been a pawn of some powerful witch, who'd given into her own feelings and put herself in a position where her defeat was guaranteed, and abandoned _her_ to suffer in her place. That was her endless June- the leftovers from some twisted game that she wasn't even supposed to be involved in.

"So you're saying that….I'm here, in this place…Because…." It all hit her like a train. She started shaking uncontrollably, clenching her fists.

"Because you were left here against your will. That's all there is to it." Her gaze fell.

"…." She was shaking a lot more visibly now.

Somehow it all made sense to her. But even though she had broken out of that Logic Error, she was still left behind, as she always had been. She still couldn't remember clearly, but she knew that in time she would remember the entire story behind this game. She'd been sacrificed to please some awful witch and had been forced to die the same way, over and over again. She'd been left to that fate forever. Sure, with the help of Hanyuu she'd been able to break out of it, but now a sense of uselessness fell upon her. Was she really that worthless that she would be left behind to suffer a fate worse than death in someone else's place? Was there really so little value in her that she was just refuse for someone to throw away?

She was lost and confused. That was all she really could confirm for herself.

But suddenly she felt the strange girl wrap her arms around her. Her grip was tight, but she shook slightly at the same time.

"I know it hurts. I've been in the same spot you've been in. But it's alright. We're free now. We can finally escape. And it's all because of you."

"….?"

"Without you, I'd still be trapped in that place- I'd be stuck in that nightmare, dying over and over. Your miracle saved me-so no matter how worthless you feel, you'll still be worth something to me!" Her voice became more urgent as she spoke. It was surprisingly out of character for this girl. But Rika didn't mind too much.

The two of them simply stayed that way for awhile. Eventually, the girl suddenly remembered something else.

"But there's one problem…" The girl spoke again.

"What's that?" Rika suddenly spoke for the first time in awhile as she let go of her.

"You're still not ready to leave this place…You've only been a witch for a little while. We need to break you in."

"Break me…in?"

"Yeah, so let's get going!" The girl regained her energetic demeanor as she clapped her hands and a small whirl of light surrounded the two of them.

"Wait, what are you doing?"

"We need to find you some better clothes. That sundress is a bit underwhelming for someone like you."

"Don't mind me asking, but what exactly is it that I'm so great for doing?"

"You don't remember? You saved me." Lambdadelta winked at her before the two of them disappeared entirely.

* * *

><p>In a matter of moments, Rika was now standing in what appeared to be the sea of fragments.<p>

"Okay, so now I'm gonna pick what you're gonna wear from now on." She smiled at her as she spoke.

Rika was still a bit baffled at this turn of events. "…Just don't make me look too ridiculous." She decided to go with it anyway.

Lambdadelta snapped her fingers and Rika suddenly was wearing a really bright, pink colored, outfit. It seemed she was wearing a tiara as well. It was somehow more humiliating than the get up the other witch was wearing.

"…What the hell did I _just _finish telling you?"

"Aw, you don't like it? I thought the color scheme suited you!" She pouted slightly. It seemed she'd done that on purpose.

"…You know what, can't I just pick myself?"

"….Okay, I guess so. So what I want you to do is close your eyes, and then just get and image of what you'd like to wear. I'll make it for you."

"…This is still really stupid, but whatever. I'll do what you want for now, I guess."

Rika did as she was told, and came up with an image that she thought would suit her. She was a witch, apparently. Witches were of a western orient and were commonly associated with a period of time where people were ignorant about the world around them. It was from a time period where extravagant and elegant clothing was the most common style. But Rika didn't like how long the woman's wear was. As she mulled over exactly what she supposedly was, she suddenly had the perfect image.

"You ready?"

"Yeah…Do it."

Lambdadelta snapped her fingers, and Rika was now wearing a nearly completely blue dress, adorned with a blue ribbon. But the most protruding feature was the cat tail that she'd somehow grown herself. But if anything, there was one thing that Lambdadelta could say about the outfit.

It was the single most ridiculously cute thing she'd ever seen. Blood rushed to her nose.

"…."

"What the hell are you staring for? I like cats. What's the big deal?"

"….Wow….So…."

"Alright, so we're done here, right?" Rika cut her off.

"…O-Oh, right. So now we can head back!" Coming to her senses, Lambdadelta clapped her hands.

Nothing happened this time.

"…Huh? Why aren't we…"

"Did you screw something up?"

"W-What? No, it's not me…Someone's interfering with-"

"You wouldn't be talking about me, would you?"

The two of them turned to find a woman standing far from them. It was the same woman who'd given Rika the Theatergoing Shard.

"You..!" Lambdadelta glared at her.

"I see you're breaking her into her role nicely. But you forgot she needs to remember how cruel she's supposed to be."

"You know who she is?"

"…She's the game master. She's your player."

"….So she's-"

"That's right. She did all of this to us." Lambdadelta nodded and then turned to face the woman again.

Rika turned back towards her.

"It's been a long time, my beloved miko."

"So it is true?" She spoke, disregarding her greeting entirely. "Did you really cause all of this to happen? Did you leave me here for five centuries to rot in your place?"

She nodded her head, the grin never leaving her face for even a moment. "It's the truth. I have no reason. Witches simply can be very cruel, that's all."

"…"

"So how about it, Bernkastel. Do you hate me?"

"…."

"Do you want to kill me? Do you want to turn all of your hate on me, the person who made you suffer for so long, and then refused to let you leave your torment after everything had been resolved?"

"…Do you really need to ask?" Rika spoke, the hate dripping from her words.

Wordlessly, she took a step forward. In that instant she dashed towards the woman, unsure of what damage she could do. She just hated her. But as she drew closer, she felt her hate beginning to take shape.

In a matter of seconds, a massive scythe appeared within her grasp. She didn't know or understand where it came from, but all she knew was that she could slice that woman's head off with it.

The scythe came into contact with a barrier that the woman had somehow placed between them. Rika tried with all her might to burst through it, but remained unsuccessful.

"…Ah, I almost forgot to ask…" She spoke, still struggling to get to her. "What's your name?"

"You really want to know?" For a small instant the grin vanished.

"Maybe if you tell me…I'll kill you a little faster."

"Hm." She smiled slightly, her eyes firmly shut. But when she opened them all Rika saw was sadness.

"Featherine Augustus Aurora, the Theatergoing Witch. That's my name."

"Feather….Augustus…." Rika's brute force slowly died out as she very quickly decoded her opponent's name.

"…Hanyuu…?"

"…"

Rika suddenly stopped. Her hatred vanished in a single instant. But the scythe still remained within her grasp. Perhaps it was the embodiment of her hate. But the turn of events turned her hate into confusion.

"Hey, Bern! Why'd you stop? She's gonna attack!" Lambdadelta was still ignorant to the entire situation.

"…No, I don't think she will."

"…" Featherine was silent.

"…Why?" Rika still allowed her anger to flow out into her words.

"…If you ever felt anything but hate up until now, maybe you'd understand. But I don't blame you. At all."

"Then why me? Why did you leave ME here instead of suffering yourself?"

"But I _did_ suffer with you. Remember? How we managed to discover who was doing all of the killings? How we undid the cycle with your miracle? We did all of that together, did we not?"

"But…Why…Why couldn't you do it on your own?"

"Because I _needed _you, Bernkastel. I needed you and your miracles to do it. But in the process…I lost my memories." She touches the floating disc that hovered around her head. "This was broken…For the second time. It was broken once before- by humans. That was the truth behind the legends of Onigafuchi. I created this in order to prevent my memories from fading entirely, but when _she _broke this disc, I lost all of my memories in their entirety. And it took me all this time to remember who I was. That's the truth."

"Then if that's the truth…Then why did you send me back, even though you'd broken free?"

"You needed to understand what you were. That was why I waited for Lambdadelta to find you before reappearing myself. It took her a lot longer than expected, but now it's finally the time for you to leave this place."

Rika turned to Lambdadelta, who was still not entirely sure of what had just happened.

"…I won't thank you."

"Certainly not. Witches are only supposed to express gratitude over tea."

"…Over tea?"

"That's right, you still have to acquire a taste for tea…I'd forgotten." Featherine appeared to have overlooked what was for some reason an important detail.

"Can't I just stick to liquor?"

"Drinking too much is bad for you."

"…Eh, I guess I'll get used to it after awhile." She was more referring to this whole new situation she was in than just the tea by itself.

Lambdadelta ended up running over to them, finally realizing that the combat had ceased.

"Wait, what happened?"

"She's not a problem anymore."

"What? But didn't she-"

"She's the reason why we both got out."

"…Huh?...Oh, I see!" She nodded her head vigorously, apparently having understood the situation. "So she came back to set us free? I guess that's alright then."

"…And I heard you wasted a lot of time trying to find me, Lambda."

"Eh…Well I-wait, did you just call me Lambda?"

"Yeah, so?"

"But that's against the rules! You have to say the whole thing! I'm the great Senate Witch, rank 34-"

"I'm going to call you Lambda. All of that is too tiring to say over and over again."

"But you haven't even said it even once yet!"

"Do I look like I care?"

"…Well, if it's just you, Bern, then I'll let you call me that." She smiled.

"…Very well then, it seems that we are done here. Lambdadelta, you should take her somewhere. Somewhere she can find herself something to drink." Featherine prepared to depart.

"Oh, right! We'll go find someplace to get some tea. We'll make it a welcoming party, jus the two of us."

"A party, eh…?" For some strange reason Rika actually liked that idea. A post-game wrap party. The end of this chapter of her life and the start of a completely different one.

"…I'll do it, but there's something I want to do first."

"Yeah? What's that?"

"You can still take us back to the fragment we were just in, correct?"

"Um, yeah, it should work now that Featherine is gone."

"…Take us back." Rika suddenly had a very twisted idea. A twisted yet fun idea. And for someone who had been faced with the exact same fate for hundreds of years- a once in a lifetime opportunity.

It all suddenly came to her. Her newfound sadness and…No, it was completely bitterness now. She didn't even feel the once plauging sadness anymore. The sudden changes within her, and her complete hatred for the world she'd been forced to slave away in for centuries led her to this conclusion.

She was a witch. She was supposed to be cruel. And factoring all of these aspects of her new self, she realized there was one thing she always wanted to do, no matter how cruel.

No matter how much she'd once loved them- or rather no matter how much Rika Furude had loved them- she'd still wanted to, for the first time in her extended life-

"I've realized I never got to do any of the killing myself."

"Oh…?" Lambda's face was practically beaming with delight- a bit twisted, but delight none the less.

"Well then…" She spoke with a low voice. "You can go have fun. Happy Birthday, Bern." She smiled at her before she clapped her hands and the two vanished.

* * *

><p>"Rika, I'm here."<p>

Keichi walked into the shrine's main room, where Rika…Or someone who appeared to be Rika was sitting. She was dressed strangely, and at her side was a huge scythe.

"…Oh, there you are. Tell me something, Keichi. Do you like Mion?"

"D-Do I like Mion….? Wait, do you mean?"

"I mean do you want to go out with her and do perverted things to her?"

"Eh…Why do you ask?"

"Answer the question."

"Uh…" Keichi rubbed the back of his head as he searched for the best answer. "Well….I suppose I would… If I ever had a chance."

A smile flashed across her face. "Well then…I guess you can still skull-fuck her if you want."

Rika reached behind her and rolled something across the floor. Keichi was unable to register what it was until it reached him. It was Mion's head.

"W-What the hell..! What is this?"

"It's Mion's head. What does it look like?" Rika had begun to laugh at his look of shock.

"R-Rika…Did you…Why did you…"

"Because I'm bored as hell around here." She stretched and yawned. "And then I remembered- you'll do whatever I want you to do." Her smile was near devilish at this point.

"B-But…!" He took a step back. But Rika had reappeared behind him. She lightly pulled him against her.

"You're trying to disobey me? That's a really bad move, you know. I killed Mion with one slice of this scythe. Imagine what I could do to you."

"…"

"So this is what I want you to do. I want you to bring me to Satoko's house."

"B-Bring you?"

"You have to carry me. Bridal style. While passing Rena's house and the Sonozaki estate."

"I-Is that all?"

"For now. Now, take me away." Her voice was almost seductive as she said that.

Keichi did as he was told. He lifted Rika- who seemed to weight the average weight of a seventeen year old girl.

The entire walk to Satoko's house was pure hell- at least for Keichi. Rika had apparently worked out the time schedule so they would pass in front of both of the requested houses just as residents of both- namely Shion and Rena- were walking out. And when they met Rika's eyes, she would force Keichi into a kiss. The demented look on Rena's face was pure delight for her. She'd been planning on confessing to Keichi today in this fragment. Shion gave her a death glare, as in this fragment she would temporarily decide to pursue Keichi due to his resemblence to Satoshi. Rika spit in her general direction afterward.

Eventually they reached Satoko's house. It was relatively early in the morning, so both Teppei and Satoko would be at home still.

"Alright, good work. Now I want you to go by that payphone and call their house."

"…And say what?"

"I want you to tell Teppei that he's got to drive down to the station to sort out some stuff about Satoko."

"…Alright."

Keichi did as he was told.

Three hours later, Teppei emerged from the house and got on his motorcycle as he prepared to drive to the police station.

But on his way down the road, Rika's scythe appeared in his path. He screamed as loud as he could before he was suddenly cut off by his head coming clean off his shoulders as the scythe cleaved his head while the rest of his body continued down the road with the motorcycle. The head was sent in the opposite direction, landing further up the road. Rika walked over to it before lifting it by the hair.

"Keichi…I want you to pick the lock on Satoko's door."

Again Keichi did as he was told without a word. The door was cracked open easily, and Satoko, having heard the noise, was already in the living room.

"Rika? Nii-nii?" She asked, somewhat confused.

"Mii…Satoko, you don't have to be so scared!" She spoke in a perfectly normal voice. Keichi stared at her in complete shock. She _loved _that face. _So _much.

"R-Rika, what do you mean?"

"You don't have to worry about your mean uncle anymore!" She smiled sweetly as she lifted Teppei's bloodied head. "Nipah!" She finished, a look of pure and innocent delight on her face.

Satoko screamed in horror.

"Come on, Satoko…Don't be so scared…" She pouted.

Satoko kept screaming. She didn't show any signs of stopping.

"Satoko…Stop screaming…." Rika continued to whine in her innocent child voice.

But she didn't stop.

"Satoko…I said…." Rika's eyes suddenly went wide. "Stop screaming!" She roared as she swiftly swung the scythe, cleaving Satoko's head from her body in one stroke.

"Ah….That's much better….Oh, is something wrong, Keichi?"

"…You…"

"Hm?" She asked, her face clearly illustrating she already knew what he was going to say.

"You're…You're a monster!" Keichi then turned and ran.

Bad move.

Rika's reach with the scythe was rather long. Long enough to snake around and cut his body in half. His lower abdomen tripped and slid off the stairs. Keichi's upper half landed near Rika's feet.

"Oh Keichi….You're so stupid, you know that?"

She brandished a wicked grin.

"But it doesn't matter. I love you all the same…."

* * *

><p>Rika returned to the shrine. It was roughly around that time.<p>

The Yamainu operatives pulled up to the shrine in the white van. They all got out simultaneously, and one of them gestured towards her. They quickly walked towards her and pushed her to the ground. She pretended to scream.

"It's nothing personal, so sorry about this." One of them spoke. The others drew out knives.

"Oh, so you're not going to have your way with me?"

They all stopped for a moment.

"…No. We are not. We are simply here to kill you."

"Why, because that whore told you to? How much is she paying you lot anyway?" She asked in a bored voice.

"….Enough to ignore your banter."

"Ah, but see you're just going to kill me like she wants you to. But did she ever tell you I could fight back?"

"….I'm not sure what you're getting at-"

In that instant an axe came down on the man's skull. Lambda stood behind him, a look of demented glee on her face. She haplessly swung the axe in every which direction. Eventually all six of the men were scattered about the ground, most of which were missing two or more limbs.

"Thanks, Lambda. I guess bringing you along was a good idea."

"Hehehe! You're welcome Bern!" She latched onto Rika's arm.

"So now there's only one thing we have to take care of. You up for it?"

"Ah, that? Alright. I'll tag along." The two of them laughed as they disappeared entirely.

* * *

><p>Takano stood in horror. She had received a report from Okonogi that all six of the men that she had sent to kill Furude Rika had been killed. But as for why- she never could've predicted how they had all been slain.<p>

"Ah, it's good to see you, Oyashiro-sama."

She turned. There wasn't anyone with her in the room a moment ago. She didn't hear the door open or anything. So why were the Furude girl and some strange looking woman were in the room with her?

"What…How…Who is…"

"Aw, you don't recognize me?" Takano wasn't sure what to think of the odd looking girl beside Furude. Lambda pouted before walking up towards her, roughly grabbing her chin.

And the sudden death glare and maniacal smile made Takano very, _very _afraid of this woman.

"You haven't looked in a mirror recently, have you? Too afraid you'll be too ugly for words?"

"…!"

"You're the worst kind of person. I can't believe you turned out this way. What our beloved grandpa would think if he saw you now…"

"S-Shut up! Don't talk about-"

"Bern, can we kill this bitch already? I'm tired of her ugly face ruining my mood."

"Alright. Should we just slit her throat or should we go with the plan?"

"….Go with the plan. I want to see her face when we do _that _to her."

Rika grinned, much the same way Lambda was. "Alright…You can come in now."

Takano stared in shock at who had entered the room.

"J-Jirou-san?"

"That's right….Oh, wait, he's supposed to be dead, right? Well, I brought him back for the occasion."

"W-What are you talking about?"

"Lambda, strap her into that chair there."

Lambda complied almost immediately. Takano was strapped into a chair and was being forced to watch the scene in front of her unfold.

"So here's the plan." Rika began.

"We're going to make you watch us kill Jirou-san here over and over again." Lambda finished.

"W-What…? No, please…Don't!"

"Too late." Rika swiftly kicked Tomitake, who didn't react in the slightest.

Lambda chopped off his head the first time.

Rika slit his throat the second time.

Lambda cleaved his body completely in half the third time.

Rika shoved a knife down his throat the fourth time.

And the cycle went on.

Five.

Six.

Seven.

The eighth time, however, Lambda decided to cast an illusion on Takano. Takano was forced to watch a simulation of Tomitake with several other women she knew, including the children from her old orphanage. Each one stabbed him in a different spot until he fell over and at the very end Lambda destroyed his mangled face by stamping it into the ground with her foot, effectively crushing his skull in the process.

"Stop! Stop! Please, I'll do _anything_. Please, no more!" Takano was brought to tears.

"About time you decided to break. We could've shown you much worse."

"So can we finish this off now?"

"Sure, why not?"

Lambda turned to her, a look of pure sickening delight on her face.

She broke both of her arms. She broke her knees and legs as well. She ripped her clothing to pieces with her various jabs with the axe and brought the axe down on her stomach. Rika actually winced at this. She'd already done far worse-especially to Rena a few hours before- but she could recognize Lambda's pure hatred for this version of herself.

Takano bled out, but not before Lambda snapped her neck.

"…And we're done. That was a good show." Rika was actually impressed with the result.

"Ah, thanks so much, Bern! I'm glad I could make you happy on your birthday!" Her malice had vanished completely. It seemed that despite her nature as a witch she somehow adored Rika. Loved her, even.

"Yeah…Thanks…." She shut her eyes for a moment. It was finally over. She was finally clear of Hinamizawa. It would all be put behind her.

"…Now, let's go find some tea. I'm thirsty."

"Ah, right! Let's go!"

And the two witches disappeared entirely, into the sea of fragments that was limitless to them.

Rika had found completion in her rage. She was finally whole again.

Without a doubt

She was Bernkastel, the Witch of Miracles

And the cruelest witch

Of them all.

* * *

><p><em>Suspicious Fragrance Chapter Result:<br>_Rena Ryuugu- Death by pure, yet completely adulterated joy  
>Sonozaki Shion- Missing. It is said that she died shortly after the incident, however.<br>Sonozaki Mion- Death due to boredom.  
>Maebara Keichi- Dead because of his own fear.<br>Furude Rika- Currently happily living in a world with all of her friends.  
>Frederica Bernkastel- Searching for entertainment and grade A tea.<br>Lambdadelta- Living with her beloved Bernkastel in a very lax lifestyle.  
>Featherine Augustus Aurora- Location Unknown. She may have gone off to play another game.<br>**The Unreliable Narrator** (Faceless)- Currently deciding whether or not this story is too demented.


	8. Bio Study Observation 05

_**Author's Note**_

Here marks the start of the next loop of chapters. So since I've made it this far I've decided to make clear another aspect of the side stories, as otherwise things may be more confusing than I intend them to be.

**How to "Solve" The Side Stories**

Now that three of them have been released, I can explain how to go about trying to draw information out of them.

First, determine who is the central character of the story, as well as who has or doesn't have the syndrome. This is by far the easiest step.

Second, figure out what has the greatest chance to be unreliable narration and what doesn't. Trying to reason out what absolutely is and what isn't (although actually fairly easy at this point in the story) isn't recommended. Upon completing this step, you should have several ideas of what the truth behind that story is.

Third, find that recurring theme that is present in all three side stories. Whether or not it revolves around the culprit or who has the syndrome is up to you.

Fourth, take that recurring theme and apply it to the main chapter that it is filed under. There may be more than one (although for this first one it is ridiculously easy to tell), and more than one might actually fit the main chapter.

Fifth, solve as much of the main chapter as you can with that information (further information may/will be revealed in future main chapters). Will every main chapter have a whole tone of information to reason out? Not nessecarily. Will the overall theme as expresssed in the side stories be incredibly obvious because of this? Not nessecarily.

Still unable to really figure things out? Wait on the solution for the first chapter and then try to solve the rest of them after figuring out what to look for.

Or are you just confused by that last story and how it was pretty much all Umineko fanon? I _did_ say the story was subjectively short. But don't void all of that material entirely, though.

Right before I kick off this next section of the story, **another warning: I will no longer be posting warnings unless I do something even more unorthodox than I've already done in this story, which I hope to god is unlikely. **

And no, I didn't number this report incorrectly.

* * *

><p><strong>Bio-Study-Observation 05 : Subject ACER-0138234691<strong>

I went in again to speak to him this morning. He was coughing a bit more than usual, but I determined that it was just the passing season. Even though this man is practically immortal he still isn't exempt from the common cold. He had Saika tend to him this morning, and according to her he was actually in a decent mood that morning. Figuring that this would make my endeavors more fruitful, I decided to try to pry more information from his memory. At this point, he could recall the process of the cotton-drifting ritual as well as the names (but not the faces or personalities, or most importantly memories of) of several residents of Hinamizawa. But the most important in this listing, although I didn't realize it until Saika pointed it out for me, was that he could recall the name of Maebara Keichi. What does that mean? It means that he was in Hinamizawa during the incident, as this Maebara did not live in the village prior to the incident. This confirms for us that he was in the village during the days before and during the accident and not just a passing traveler. Of course I could've told you that, but the fact that he knew Maebara means that the concept of the Sonozaki twins bringing pain and fear to this man doesn't necessarily mean that either of them were the killers. Perhaps it was on a more personal level. It's not much, but at least it's something. We need better external sources though. The Watchers won't be updating their page anytime soon, after all… Which reminds me about that incident as a whole. I won't be forgetting it anytime soon.

I suppose I shouldn't be talking about this- ah, hell, I'll just redact it later. But since it is related to the case I might as well get it out of the way (and off my chest as well, I'm having trouble accepting it all). The office has been getting a bit hellish lately. Mido's daughter Marie went missing just the other day. She hasn't been found yet, but the staff members at her school as well as the police involved are giving up hope. He's having withdrawals. But of course he's been infected too on top of that. He went in and asked the man how to deal with having lost all hope for living. The man apparently told him something really moving- he came into work the next day significantly rejuvenated. But he fell unconscious sorting through papers. Of course now he's hospitalized, much like Aria. But I got to see him lose his sanity in person. He's been rambling about youkai and a Mesomeso something or other- I really don't know, but I feel incredibly sorry for the man.

Aria's been getting a whole lot worse. She's tried killing herself several times at this point. Saika, being the helpful nurse she is, stopped more than half of these attempts. I can't help but feel useless in these sorts of situations, especially when I'm partially to blame for being a bit too lax recently and dumping a lot of the work on Aria. I'm not sure how things could get any worse, but things are getting worse regardless. She'll probably end up dead by the end of the month at this rate. I'm trying to put aside most of my other duties and am trying to teach myself some form of psychology that could possibly help, but I'm losing hope in that area. I'll keep trying, however. If it's even a small percentage of a chance that it'll work, I have to save Aria.

But in the meantime, I need to hire some new staff, since my assistants are getting picked off one by one. The top brass gave me a Dr. Markus Vaughn, who apparently is a surgeon. Why they sent a surgeon to help out on something like this I'll never know. But he's knowledgeable in general, yet a bit too relaxed- kinda like me, before all of this started off. I'll make due with him for now.

It's the other one I really don't like. They sent me a detective. A goddamn detective. I hate detectives in general, but I'm certain this man's the worst of them all. The man's name is Reiji, and if there's one person I don't want to see on a daily basis more than anyone else in the world it's this man. He's constantly interrogating everyone around the office about the smallest thing- that includes myself, his superior. At least he's not as much of an asshole as that one detective from America I read about who cheated on his wife with some German woman- ah, what does this have to do with anything? Bottom line my new staff members are useless. At least Saika's still running things with me. I don't know if we'd ever make any progress without her.

And on that topic, she managed to pick something rather important up just this morning. Apparently he only mentioned it to her because he was a bit uncomfortable talking to me about it. But she's told me he's willing to talk now, so I'll be getting on with that now. I'll have to end this report here, but I'll continue in the next one.

**Report End**

**Please turn to page 10**


	9. II: Invitation Chapter

**Invitation Chapter**

_In the following volume you will be treated to a perspective of a character on the opposite end of the spectrum- a character who, without this tale, would be deemed entirely meaningless. While this character is in herself a goat (of the highest order, mind you), she has been given a role in this tale to deliver a certain message to you- that curiosity most certainly kills the cat. Whether that old saying will be adhered to or not….Well, you already know the answer, don't you?_

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_**The Pivotal Actors are as follows (perspective character gets the bold):**_

Naoto Sakagami (Age 16; Hair: shoulder length, violet; Eyes: Yellow)  
>Harumi Edogawa (Age 15; Hair: long, red; Eyes: Blue)<br>**Yoko Narukami** (Age 15; Hair: short, silver; Eyes: Red)  
>Ange Ushiromiya (Age 15)<br>Yomi Sumidera (Age 15; Hair: long, blonde; Eyes: Blue)

_The Situation is as Follows:  
><em>Roughly two weeks have passed since the most recent incident in Hinamizawa. Out of the people involved in the Watchers occult group, two of them- Rai Sumidera (the original who was pronounced dead only days before the bodies in Hinamizawa were found) and Hatsune Edogawa, had siblings who were sent to St. Lucia Academy that were unable to attend their funerals, or more specifically outright denied the ability to. However, the incident and the village it involves soon strike close to home.

I'd introduce myself, as well as my friends and all of that standard introductory crap, but at the moment I'm far too enraged at this stupid girl to think of anything else.

I watch coldly as Harumi slaps her across the face. All we wanted her to do was to write an apology note because she scored a humiliating grade on an exam. Was that so damn difficult? We're all worse off because of her. She humiliates all of us with her presence here. She makes so many mistakes, and I guess this won't be all that different.

"You're worthless, Ushiromiya!" She screams.

The girl we were currently occupying ourselves with didn't make as much as a sound. She was still staring motionlessly at the half-assed apology note she'd written. She had failed to admit her own worthlessness at everything she did. We continue to chew her out, but before I even realize it Harumi takes things a step too far.

She reaches for those prized bands that Ushiromiya held her hair up with. I knew just how important to her those were, so I figure that letting Harumi have her way would be the best course of action.

"What's the point in living if you're going to be such a burden? If I were you, I'd die!"

But then Ushiromiya yells at us. Actually, it's more of a shriek.

"Why…Why don't you just die?" She stares straight into Harumi's eyes. It's the most frightening stare I've ever seen in my life. I almost begin to regret putting her through this, but I suddenly snap at her.

"Ushiromiya, shut your mouth! How dare you…." I'm fuming at this point. Who the hell does she think she is….?

She crumbles the paper and chucks it at me. I'm frozen with shock. She was never like this. She'd usually just sit and take our verbal abuse, never so much as batting an eyelash, like we were just bugs to her… Sure, she'd fainted once when we did this before, but now…?

She rises and storms off. She leaves the room and slams the door behind her. Harumi is frozen with shock, but she suddenly goes off on a rampage of her own.

Oh hell, that's right. I'd completely forgotten.

"Ushiromiyaaaaaaaa!" She howls as she almost starts to storm off after her.

"Edogawa!" I grasp her shoulder and call her by her last name- the only thing that really seems to get to her. She freezes on the spot. "Don't do anything stupid."

"…" She doesn't respond.

"Look, we'll let her go. It won't fix anything if we go after her anymore." I don't believe myself as I say this, but I realize maybe I _do _feel somewhat sorry for her, somewhere deep down. I try to disregard it as much as possible.

"….Y-You….You're right…." Harumi gradually calms down. I find myself cooling off as well.

"…." We stay silent for a few moments as the awkward moment passes through the room. All the other students, who up until now had been reveling in Ushiromiya's disgrace, had been staring our way ever since Ushiromiya stood up to the point where Harumi had nearly stormed out of the room.

"Come on, let's go find something to eat. That'll help you cool off." I ignore the fact that she should have received disciplinary action for her outburst.

"…Okay." She nods her head, trying to keep herself under control. I lead her out of the classroom by the hand, since it almost seems like she'd take off in the opposite direction at any moment.

I lead her off down the hallway, primarily just trying to get her as far away from where Ushiromiya had run off as possible. Her face is a complete mess. She looks angry and distraught at the same time. I wouldn't blame her, though. I feel terrible now for overlooking something so simple and deciding to take Edogawa with me to yell at Ushiromiya.

I'd nearly forgotten what had happened only a few days ago. It was in the newspaper and later on the television that only displayed the news that was situated in most of our rooms. Several bodies had been found nearby and inside a sealed off village called Hinamizawa, all of which had been horribly mutilated by the culprit. As unfortunate as it was, Harumi's older sister Hatsune was found amongst the corpses, her head completely severed from the rest of her body- which still has yet to be found. On top of that, someone she considered to be one of her best friends, Shugo, was found dead in a similar matter. As if the situation couldn't get any worse, her parents, who sent her to this school to get her out of their hair as permanently as possible, refused to let her attend the funeral.

I failed to remember how distraught she is right now. I'll smack myself later for this, I'm sure.

But she's not the only one in this situation who is involved with my small group of friends here at St. Lucia.

I suppose now I should introduce the lot of us. I am Yoko Narukami, one of the highest ranking members of the student council at this school. As you'd probably expect at this point, I'm a bit of a perfectionist- no, _a bit_ isn't quite powerful enough. Something is done incorrectly? I'll go through hell and back to amend it. I've never gotten a score on a test below a 95, and that 95 was amended to a perfect score after I proved the teacher wrong. Despite my outward appearance, I have been told that I'm a relatively caring person. Although you'd never be able to tell if you ever watched me chew someone out even once. Of course you can probably tell from just that why I hate Ushiromiya so much. She's the one mistake I can't correct. But really it's more like she's the embodiment of my greatest fears- the mistakes that people make that I can't correct no matter how hard I try.

Along with me in the student council is my senpai, Naoto Sakagami. She's been an important friend of mine for a very long time. I'll put it this way- if there's ever a mistake I _haven't _corrected, it was because she told me not to. I trust her fully and completely. She's incredibly responsible, and seems to want to involve herself in everyone else's problems (although this is more of a drawback sometimes). She's even stood up for Ushiromiya on more than one occasion. I believe I'm starting to see why, now that one of my closest friends was dumped into a situation that is relative to hers, but I'll never admit it out loud. In that sense, I suppose my hatred from Ushiromiya partially comes from the fact that she's never thanked senpai even once. I doubt she even really cares. But senpai doesn't seem to mind too much. It's not just Ushiromiya either- a lot of people seem to blow off her assistance. I know most of the girls at this school have a false sense of pride (myself included, but my sense of pride is very real. At least that's what I've been told), but it still angers me to no end.

I suppose now I should reintroduce Harumi Edogawa, so I can at least salvage some of her image from the train wreck from before. Harumi is an example of someone who isn't overly nice. She won't walk into the classroom with a huge smile on her face. She's far more calm and collected and tends to speak when spoken to. She's Harumi isn't as overly obnoxious as she might appear in a situation like this. In fact, she's quite the opposite. She generally just minds her business, but much like I she hates Ushiromiya, but for a reason that's probably completely different from mine. She won't fume at someone just for the sake of boosting her own ego, but when she _does _fume at someone…I'll just say she's about as nasty as she appeared earlier. Although today was a bit more concentrated than her usual anger fits. She's essentially as average as a girl should ever be who has to put up with her terrible parents. She really shouldn't be here (unlike someone as irrational as I am), but she has no choice. Now with her older sister dead she must be in terrible shape, but I haven't really been trying to make things any easier for her, so I suppose it's partially my fault. So much for being a perfectionist, eh?

But now I get to someone who's in the same boat with Harumi. Yomi Sumidera, a usually nice girl (I'll emphasize nice for you) who despite the outward appearance spends most of her time handling some very shady business. Now before you get the wrong idea, she mostly sneaks out letters and such, using the rather large amount of money that she had embezzled from her father's bank account over the years to cover her tracks. She's like a modern ninja, except she can make up for her mistakes with money. We met originally when I caught her sneaking a letter outside the school. I nearly turned her in for disciplinary action, but for some reason I found her actions somewhat admirable- once I found out who she was sending her letters to.

You see, years earlier, about seven years ago to be precise, Yomi's parents disowned her slightly older brother, Rai- when he was only ten years old if I recall correctly, she's told me the story about five times, I should know this stuff by now. Having loved her older brother much more than her parents ever did, Yomi was heartbroken after the incident. She was sent off to this school to ensure her parents that she wouldn't turn out like he did. Of course once she ascertained his new address after being released by child protection and sent off to high school, she started sending letters to him left and right. It was partially what kept her going through her terrible year- last year, where she'd been the only one in our class to fail an exam and had to go through the ramifications of doing so. It was unfair morally, but the school had a strict segregation policy against black sheep. I'd actually seen the encouraging letter her brother sent her.

But then he stopped sending letters entirely. And only about five months later- the present time- his body was found in a state of post-death decay, buried on a hill somewhere to the north. He wasn't even involved in the Hinamizawa Incident, although his pack of friends that he mentioned a few times turned up dead in the village. Since then….Well, she's lost most of the light in her eyes. That's the only way I can really describe it. She recently served detention for smacking a teacher who yelled at her, and even though her parents were notified they didn't act upon the news. Perhaps they had some shred of feeling for her after all.

I hadn't seen Yomi today, but I figured I'd run into her around lunchtime. That was when we met for the most part. I was planning on heading to lunch with Harumi shortly after she calmed down. She'd spent an awful lot of her time in the mail room, most likely part of her relapsing- waiting for letters that would never arrive.

But now back to the situation at hand. I continue to lead Harumi, not really caring where we go for the moment. Despite wanting to get the usual group together for lunch, I figure that now all I can really do is get her to calm down. Eventually she comes to a halt, refusing to move no matter how much I tug on her hand.

"…Dammit, I really screwed up this time, didn't I?" She said in a dejected tone.

"Look, don't worry about it. I was just as mad as you were." Not the best choice of words. But I continue to try to comfort her, never noticing the look in her eyes. She's about to burst again.

"Like hell you were! I flipped out. I was completely out of control. I let that bitch get to me and I had a temper tantrum. Why the hell aren't _you_ of all people writing me up for this? So many people saw! You'll get punished for this!" She directs her anger at me this time.

"Don't worry. I can explain the situation. I'm sure senpai will understand. So don't worry." I try to calm her down. I tell her things she probably already knows.

"I got you dragged into this too, huh?" She sounds more miserable now.

I decide the best course of action is to embrace her. So that's what I do. She shakes slightly in my soft grasp, but she calms down slightly as her burst of sadness passes by.

"Don't worry. I told you, everything will be fine. We don't have to worry about Ushiromiya for the rest of the day. So let's just go get some lunch, okay?" I speak softly. I'm about as helpful as Ushiromiya right about now, but hell, I can't let her go storming off on her own.

But to my surprise she breaks my grip on her and stands up straight, having regained most of her composure.

"Okay…I guess that's best for now."

We continue down the hall, no longer holding hands. It gets to the point where we reach the stairwell leading downstairs to the lunch room where Harumi's favorite bread was being served. Apparently she also realized this and her move suddenly improved. I suppose that even the smallest things can take her mind off of the situation. I feel somewhat relieved, as we proceed down the stairs. Halfway down, we meet Yomi who had most likely just left the mail room.

"Ah, Edogawa and Narukami. It's good to see you this afternoon." One thing I forgot to mention about Yomi was she acted overly polite to people when she was in a bad mood. It goes without saying she's been like this for the last several days.

"Oh, good afternoon, Yomi-chan." I try to force a smile, but given how her facial expression doesn't change I assume that it didn't work out.

"Good afternoon." Harumi is more brief than usual.

"Ah, right. I'm sorry I went through your mail box without permission, but there's a letter for you, Edogawa-san." Yomi reaches into her pocket and draws a letter addressed to Harumi.

"Oh…Okay, thanks. Don't worry about going through my stuff; if you're there you might as well." She almost immediately stuffs it into her pocket. She clearly wasn't interested in the contents of the letter. It was probably just something from her parents regarding her sister's death.

"So…" Yomi suddenly breaks into a smile. She must've only now registered that she and Harumi were in more or less the same situation and that the letter had brought about some bad thoughts. "Are we going to find Naoto-senpai and get something to eat?"

"That's the plan." I chime in, trying to keep the more pleasant atmosphere alive as long as possible. "Come on, let's go." I tug on her sleeve and she suddenly snaps back to reality. She nods without a word and smiles slightly.

We head into the lunch room and senpai is already seated with lunch purchased for the three of us. Despite the fact that most of the students got their lunch for free as part of the tuition, our parents were slightly less willing to fork over money and we were forced to buy lunch. Most of it was pooled out of Yomi's collection while the rest was received in portions of 1,000 yen- about ten dollars for comparison- sent to us on a monthly basis. Luckily senpai was about as rich as Yomi was and manage to acquire food for all of us. She'd even bought Harumi's favorite bread, already considering her weak state of mind. I still can't figure out how someone could be just so _nice_.

"Ah! Naoto-senpai, you're the best!" Yomi somewhat cheers, trying to suppress her own bad mood as much as she can. I'm utterly amazed at how she can say something so lighthearted with such a vacant look in her eyes.

"So I'll pay you back for this tomorrow, okay?" I ask her, already knowing what the answer will be.

"With interest." She smiled. It was a running joke we had, so I made sure not to overlook it. Making the scene as normal as possible was the only way I could fix this situation.

Naoto-senpai hands the bread to Harumi, beaming at her. Harumi succumbs to the overwhelming positive radiance senpai was emitting and ended up smiling genuinely herself.

Much to my delight the rest of lunch goes almost completely typically. Harumi actually made some input into the conversation, although I later figured out that she was just drowning out the chatter about her from the table behind us. Once I figure this out I promptly turn to yell at them, and Harumi appears to appreciate the gesture.

By the time classes resume, Harumi's more or less completely calmed down. We head back to class together, while I secretly hope she won't snap at Ushiromiya when we run into her, undoing everything I've been trying to do the whole morning.

Apparently she noticed this. "Don't worry, I'll be fine." She says, lightly patting my shoulder. "I don't want to make all your effort go to waste, after all."

We head back inside the room without a word. The rest of the class promptly turns and stares at us with looks of disdain, amusement, and in the case of the four girls I yelled at earlier, fear. I promptly send them another death glare, and the four of them instantly turn around, killing the feelings of suspiciousness the rest of the class seems to emit towards us. Damn, that felt good.

Ushiromiya is nowhere to be seen, however. Class continues on and she never shows up. Normally I'd hunt her down and interrogate her but today was as bit of an exception.

During one of the breaks, I hear more chatter regarding Harumi. It's far more sympathetic than the rumor spreading that was going on earlier.

"Hey, you heard about that serial murder, right?" The first girl whispers, as to not alert Harumi who was sitting five desks away. Unfortunately they didn't take me into account. But at least I could eavesdrop from here. I just have to keep me

"Of course I did. We can't watch anything besides the news here, remember?"

"You _do_ know that village was that one that got destroyed twelve years ago, right?"

"Oh, Hinamizawa, correct?"

"Yeah…I haven't been doing much of this myself, but there was this cult group on the internet that made people interested in it again. A lot of girls who go on the internet in secret go to their website."

"A cult group?"

"Yeah, the Watchers. They all went to this one school and they all went to that village for some ritual or something. That's what it said on their main page before it got shut down."

"Really? A ritual? How crazy is _that_?" the girl seems to be in disbelief over this story she was being told.

"They were probably all crazy. Why else would you go to such a dark and dangerous place?"

"…Wait a minute, then was Edogawa's sister in that cult?"

"I don't know…Maybe…"

"But anyway…" She tries to shift the line of discussion, just in case Harumi had heard her. "That village- the name is a bit familiar."

"That's because a girl who went to this school a long time ago lived there. She turned up dead there back when the whole village got wiped out."

"Ah, right, the Devil Student, right? Sonozaki Shion?"

"Yeah. I'm surprised you heard about that old legend. It died out years ago."

"I heard someone talking about it in the lunch room yesterday."

"Really? I guess that place is making a comeback after all." Harumi rose to walk over to me, so their conversation promptly ended there. I'm not entirely sure if they knew I could hear them or not.

"So are you heading back to your room after class?" From the sound of her voice I would say she'd recovered rather nicely.

"Yeah. I don't have much else to do." There were no student council meetings today and the lunch room closed at three. There isn't anything else to do but to go back to my room and study.

"Okay, I guess I can talk to you about it some other time." Harumi apparently had something she wanted to talk about. There weren't too many places we could just sit and talk about something important though. My room certainly wasn't one of those places. Especially after today.

"Can't you talk about it now?"

"Nah, it's a bit important. I guess we could talk about it at lunch tomorrow." Apparently it was something important as I had predicted. Talking about it amongst our group was one of the safer methods, so I agreed and waved her off as class was about to resume.

Harumi wandered back to her seat while I went back to mulling over what I'd just overheard.

The Devil Student? It was the first I heard of such a rumor. But later that day on my way back to my room I heard two more people talking about her.

Shion Sonozaki, a student who transferred out of this school in a short period of time after her arrival. She apparently hated it here, and as rumor had it she was involved in some sort of shady business. Apparently her family was a former Yakuza branch, although it had become far more humane and less of a mafia family and more of a high class ruling family that maintained a certain amount of power over its home village.

She left the school for an undisclosed reason, and in 1983 she reportedly died along with the rest of the village in a natural gas leak. Apparently most of this information was being pulled from the Watchers page, which had more than enough details on the incident. Supposedly a number of girls who were following the whole thing and were in to the occult (even though such things were strictly forbidden at this school and should be punished severely) had managed to salvage the entire site before it was pulled down by authorities.

Of course the rest of the legend was passed down from senpai to kohai over the past twelve years until it became a school legend.

Shion Sonozaki was simply the polar opposite of a girl that this school would produce. She was far too rebellious to have been sent here to begin with. This school was suppressing her very nature, and in the end it was rather easy to tell why she'd want to leave this place- and why what occurred went down on this school's grounds.

Around the spring semester in 1980, a girl in Sonozaki's class suddenly stopped showing up. After about four weeks passed, she reappeared and was penalized according to the school's rules-which were now more like laws after I took the disciplinary position (promptly becoming rules again when I was promoted to a higher position. I never forgave senpai for that one). But that week she suddenly turned up dead in the school's courtyard. The death was attributed to a heat stroke, but given Sonozaki's reputation for being the cruelest woman in the world, having managed to break down some of the most intimidating figures at the school, the death was attributed to her- she was known to never have liked the girl who turned up dead.

But things took a turn for the worst when Sonozaki started to bully one of the people who started spreading the Demon Student rumor in the first place. She made her life miserable for a period of time before she stopped entirely. But rumor has is that she tortured her in private in some of the worst ways imaginable. This mainly sprung up due to her roommate's request to transfer rooms. But she never divulged any details as to why.

The girl Sonozaki was reportedly torturing? She jumped off the roof of the school on the first day of summer.

From there on the Demon Student legend picked up steam. There was never any evidence that Sonozaki was involved- no signs of abuse, fingerprints, or anything else on the corpse pointed to Sonozaki. But it was always a topic of discussion- after she left the school, of course. Prior to that, however, she was feared by many. That was probably how the rumor picked up so much steam.

I'd been eavesdropping for well over a half an hour behind a tree. I didn't know what came over me. Perhaps it was because the rumor had some connection to Harumi and I wanted to know as much as feasibly possible so I could help fix things with her.

I decide that I wanted as much information as I could get on this person. Despite the fact that I had no connections to any of the occult obsessed girls, I _did _know someone from outside this school who was well versed in that village. After all, he'd been assigned to investigate the scene after the disaster.

I make my way towards the nearest phone booth. Normally a student would not be able to access these, but with my student council position and senpai's trustworthy nature I had one of the keys to the phone booth I was currently heading toward.

I hope I remembered the number correctly as the phone rings. A few moments later a rather tired sounding man picks up.

"_Hel-"_

"Oishi-san?" I instantly ask without so much as waiting for his greeting.

"_Ah, yeah, that's me. Who is this?"_

"You still remember that little girl who almost shot you with your gun at your office a few years ago, right?" …What's with that face? Shut up, I wasn't _trying _to kill him or anything. It's a long story, but I'm not going to explain it to you.

"…_Ah, Yoko-chan! It's been years!"_ He sounds pleased to hear from me.

"Ah, good. You remember. Yeah, it's been awhile."

"_So what seems to be the problem? You wanna break out of school?"_ The man laughs. He was well aware of my situation and tended to make fun of me for it. We'd spoken about a year ago under similar circumstances as right now, although back then I was angry and tried to get him to send me a revolver so I could shoot someone. I was mainly venting- don't get the wrong idea.

"You were covering that village crisis back in 1983, right?"

"_Ah, you must mean Hinamizawa. Yeah, I was. It's a shame it's started up again. What about it?"_

"What do you know about a Shion Sonozaki?"

He pauses slightly before he answers. _"…Not as much as I'd like. Are you saying that she's related to something?"_

"I don't know. But I have a feeling."

The old man chuckles a bit. _"….Tell you what- I know you well enough, I know you hate rumors and stuff like that. So what I'd like you to do is gather as much as you can on Sonozaki-san and I'll personally pay you for whatever you give us."_

"You'll…pay me?"

"_Yeah. Within reason, but I'll pay you for whatever you get. Hell, if you can get us something pinning the crime on that girl we'll credit you for the case."_

"….But Oishi-san, you're avoiding that one really important point."

"…_That Sonozaki-san's been dead for years, right? Well, you're the one who found information on it, weren't you?"_

"Ah, right. I'll tell you what I know." I said, suddenly remembering what I was trying to accomplish by talking to him

I spend the next ten minutes going over everything I'd heard over the last thirty minutes. He was apparently taking notes down, although I suspected that he was only taking down some minor details.

"_So that's everything? Well I guess it's a decent start. I won't pay you until we get something a bit more concrete. Of course the only way you could ever get more is if you went to the village yourself. Of course that's not really possible." _The old man laughs as he says that.

"Eh, well at least you can start investigating, right?"

"_Of course we can."_ He was lying through his teeth.

"Well, whatever. I'll call you if I figure out anything else."

"_Alright, that sounds like a plan. I'll talk later. Bye now."_ He hung up shortly after he said that.

Being _paid _to go out of my way to right a wrong? Could this situation be any better?

I'm somewhat excited. But I realize that the only way to actually go out of my way and investigate was to leave the school, which I knew was completely impossible as it was. Perhaps there was another way that I hadn't reasoned out yet…

* * *

><p>I head back to my room shortly afterward. The walk takes about ten minutes and by the time I get to my room my roommate should have returned. We had things to talk about.<p>

I opened the door to our empty room. It appeared that she still had yet to return.

"…I'll yell at her later." I sigh as I land on my bed. Today was a tad more tiring than usual. Of course Ushiromiya didn't make anything easier for me. In fact she was the source of my problems.

"…Eh, whatever. I guess I can go easy on her today."

I glance over to the side at the opened drawer. It seemed she hadn't come back, considering how that diary of hers was still on the floor near her bed. She really can't leave something like that lying around. After all, someone wanting to pick on her might wander in here and grab it and use it against her.

Speaking of my roommate, I hear the door open. I assume she returned just now. She walks into the room, her hair completely messy given the incident earlier.

"There you are. Don't go wandering out late at night."

"Ah…Right." She speaks almost expressionlessly.

I think now is as good a time as any to mention that Ange Ushiromiya is my roommate. She never bothered to move into one of the rare private rooms, of which there were two in each dormitory, before they were both taken. If I were to move out of the room, she'd probably turn up dead somewhere and I'd be partially blamed for it. So I was stuck with her. But I don't think 'stuck' is the right word to use. After senpai stood up for her, I figured I'd give her a chance. Just from pure observation, I'd managed to learn more about her.

"You left this lying around. You shouldn't be so careless." I hand her the diary labeled as belonging to a Maria Ushiromiya. She did this sort of thing all the time, but she was usually more protective of this diary.

"Right. Sorry." She states as she sits down on her own bed and opens that diary. She proceeds to space out for a good forty minutes- a common occurrence with this girl.

I don't know the details. I really don't. She doesn't ever explain what happened to me. I just know that she was one of the two survivors of the rich and in-famous Ushiromiya family, which was wiped out on their private island in 1986. And now she's like this. I'm not sure why her current legal guardian sent her to a place like this. But she's hated by quite a few people. I am included in that list of people- at least, that is the public image I'm expected to take.

She eventually closes the book and I'm free to speak again. I reach into my pocket and draw that hair band that Harumi pulled off of her earlier.

"You left this behind earlier."

"Oh. Right." She takes the band from my extended hand and fixes her hair. Her voice can't be any more emotionless.

I suddenly blurt something out. "Did you even study for that test?" My voice is more mildly irritated than it was earlier today.

"No, I didn't." She never answers questions with more than three words. It's infuriating.

"Maybe if you did things like today wouldn't happen."

"Maybe."

"…Are you even mad?"

"I'm not."

"But you said you wanted us dead. Didn't you? You even threw that apology note at me."

"Did I?"

"Yeah…You did…You really need to start standing up for yourself more often."

I get up and walk over to her, seating myself next to her.

"Look, just be a bit more careful. Lord knows what would've happened if I didn't stop Harumi from attacking you."

She doesn't respond.

"…Dammit, why are you even here to begin with?"

"I don't know."

Beyond the point of reason I force her into an incredibly rough kiss. Don't worry, I'll explain later.

As usual, there's no feeling in it whatsoever. It's as if there's no one even there, as if all there is to this girl is a mindless husk. I try to make it last as long as possible so I can calm myself down. Eventually, having my fill of this girl's perfectly shaped mouth, I break off.

"…God, I can't stand you, you know that?"

"Sorry."

"Whatever. Just go to sleep."

"Okay." I'm beginning to think she doesn't want anything to do with me. Wow, I wonder were _that _conclusion came from.

As for what just happened- I didn't lie when I said I hated her. She _is_ the only mistake I can't correct. But I find that way too intoxicating for my own good. I can't stop myself at this point. I haven't done anything worse than just this. But it's still a bit over the top. I mainly just make out with her primarily to calm myself down. Why that? Because she's far too attractive for her own good. Really, most of the girls who bully her on a constant basis are mainly just jealous of that on its own. Of course the bulk of the girls at this school are completely straight. So I'm the outlier there. But at least she doesn't seem to mind much. Dammit, why the hell am I so fucked up? Wait, no, it's only natural. After all, this girl is impossible to deal with. It's not my fault, it's not my problem, it's hers!

Dammit, I'm pissed off again. This girl causes so much trouble….!

Ah hell, might as well just accept it at this point.

Now on top of her, I force her into another kiss. This time I manage to slip my tongue in her mouth. She's forced to move her mouth this time, even though she probably still isn't registering what I'm doing. After about two minutes I break off and move off of her bed.

It wasn't even just because of her failures. If I was ever stressed out about pretty much anything I would relieve my tension like this. It had become a tad too habitual for the perfectionist side of me, But then again, I'm a bit obsessive compulsive when it came to a lot of things. Therefore it fits perfectly with my personality.

But I'll make something clear. I only think that Ange's incredibly good looking. I don't think anything higher than that of her. But I am closer to her on the inside like this than I am in public (rather obviously). I'll address her as Ange. If I ever went further than just kissing her, I'd probably address her as Ange then.

I decide to wander off to sleep myself. Harumi had something important to discuss at lunch tomorrow so I had to make sure I wasn't going to nod off around then by going to sleep late.

Even though I'd pushed it to the back of my mind, I could still recall the Demon Student rumor. I had a feeling that it was somehow involved in the fate of Harumi's sister, but for now I simply had to let time pass before I could continue on my rather futile crusade to amend Harumi's progressively breaking heart.

She'd tried to force her normal personality on me ever since we returned to the classroom from lunch. But I could see straight through her. She's still hurting- and hurting far too much.

* * *

><p>The next day, Ushiromiya (as I will resume calling her) reappeared in class. We ignored her for the most part, although I did send her a nervous glance when she entered the room. She didn't make a single noise that entire day.<p>

Lunch eventually came around, and so I decide to head off with Harumi to the lunch room.

"So you wanted to talk amount something?"

"Yeah…Let's gather everyone first and then we can talk it over." I don't question her choice of words.

Once we reach the stairwell, Yomi appears pretty much out of nowhere.

"Good morning, Harumi-chan!" She joyfully embraces her friend from the side. Her face was beaming, however. It was like she had studied senpai's face from yesterday down to the last detail and spent all night trying to perfect it. It's incredibly uncharacteristic of her, but at least she's trying.

"Eh?" Harumi was a tad surprised by the sudden display.

"I wonder if Naoto- senpai bought us lunch again today." She releases her, clearly having made her entrance count.

"I doubt it. Even senpai has funds." I speak, knowing that Harumi would still be reeling from that awkward entrance.

"Then I'll buy us lunch then." Yomi continues her cheerful display.

"You do that way too often. We _do _have money, you know."

"Aw, you guys never let me do anything for you when I'm in the mood."

"Anyway…" Harumi suddenly interrupts, trying to get the two of us back on track. "Let's go find Naoto-senpai before our table gets taken."

"Oh, that's right." Yomi suddenly heads off down the stairs. Harumi and I follow her down.

We find senpai in a similar situation as yesterday.

"Twice in a row? Do you think I _like _freeloading off of you all the time?" I complain to her.

"Yeah." She smiles somewhat mischievously.

"…"

"What, you don't have a comeback for that one?"

"S-Shut up." I respond, my generic tsundere reaction kicking in.

"Anyway, we're all here, so I want to get this out of the way."

"Oh, right. Harumi-chan wants to talk about something."

I nod my head and turn towards her. If my usually correct intuition was telling me anything, it was that this had to do with that rumor.

I couldn't have been more correct.

She draws that letter she received yesterday from her pocket.

"Okay, so this might be a bit of me panicking and a bit of me still being sore over the whole mess, but I want you guys to read this letter with me."

"So it's about…" Yomi's voice died a bit when Harumi pulled the letter out.

"Yeah." She unfolds the letter and places it on the table for all of us to see. I begin reading it, and at the very first line I find myself wishing I'd never have looked at it.

_To the beloved sister of the rightfully deceased Hatsune Edogawa  
><em>_Do you wish to see the face your beloved sister held as she died?  
><em>_Perhaps you want revenge on the man who did the deed.  
><em>_Or maybe you just want to make it all go away and never think about it ever again.  
><em>_Or do you simply want your sister back?  
><em>_If you desire any of these things, you must free yourself from the binds of that place.  
><em>_You must come here.  
><em>_Here, to the place where your sister, along with countless others, met their ends.  
><em>_Here, to the forsaken village.  
><em>_Here, to stand in the presence of a deity long forgotten.  
><em>_Here, to the last place on Earth you'd ever want to be.  
><em>_Here, to Hinamizawa. _

The letter wasn't signed, nor was there a return address. How this made it through the mail service without being confiscated I would never know- unless it was hand delivered.

"It's probably some sort of sick joke." Yomi spoke after she'd finished reading the letter.

"Yeah…That's what I thought at first." Harumi had apparently ruled out the prank factor a long time ago. That was probably why she decided to bring it up in the first place.

"Is there something special about this letter?" I ask, already having a few ideas as to what could be so special about it.

"Yeah…It's who wrote the letter."

"But there isn't any sort of signature or anything like that." Senpai spoke, apparently having finished reading last. The usual pleasant tone in her voice had completely vanished. Another trait she had when going from a relaxed atmosphere to something incredibly serious.

"However…I know who wrote this. It was my sister."

"_What_?" I blurt out. Her…sister wrote this letter? Aside from the fact that such a thing was impossible-

"How do I know it was my sister? The handwriting."

"The…Handwriting? But can't that just be forged?" Yomi asks; confusion apparent in her voice.

"Normally but…My sister's handwriting is a bit different. It's the way she writes these letters. You see, whenever she wrote letters to me she would write them in a very specific form. She'd write "Edogawa" in romaji, "sister" in some really improper hiranga- the word scheme is very exact and was exclusive to the letters she wrote to me. It was so I would always know that she was the one sending them and not my parents in an attempt to fool me. My dad is amazingly skilled in forging documents, so that's why she wrote them that way. The last sign- she would always use the word sister a total of four times. This letter follows all of those signs. I know without a doubt that my sister wrote this."

I was a bit dumbfounded. I could understand it for the most part. I didn't see this coming when I mulled it over earlier, that's for sure. Hatsune Edogawa, Harumi's deceased sister, had sent this letter to her, written as if it were from the person responsible for her death, telling her to go to the village where she had died.

"So then how is that possible?" Senpai spoke. She seemed to believe the story.

"I don't know…" Harumi's face falls.

"…" I couldn't make any further input.

"So…Do we listen to the letter?" Yomi suddenly spoke.

"It depends on what Harumi wants." Senpai brings the situation to its core.

"Right. Harumi, what do you want to do?" I take the hint from senpai and ask her.

"…I'm not sure. I want to know why this happened. I…I really just want to know why she died and who killed her."

"…I'm in a similar situation." Yomi spoke. "My brother was involved with the group, and even though he didn't die in the village I'm sure they're connected."

"Are you both sure about that?" I ask them. I already had an idea as to where this was going.

"Yeah….But I doubt we'd be able to get out of this school."

"Hehe….Leave that to me." Yomi grins. That's right- she's the one with connections and money. "So are we doing this, Harumi?"

"Yeah. I guess we are." She nods her head.

Oh no they don't. Doing something so incredibly wrong in front of two student council members.

And refusing to take them along. Deep down I knew that I was only really interested in verifying the Devil Student rumor, as well as fulfilling Oishi-san's offer. But the fact that two of my best friends would be in danger might have been more prevalent. I'd like to think so.

"You're not going alone, you idiots." I speak up. They aren't sure what to make of my sudden outburst. I'm not sure what to make of it either. "You'll probably screw up and get yourselves killed if I'm not around."

"A-Are you sure?" Harumi asks in disbelief.

"Sure, why not? You're my best friends, after all. I'm not going to let you break the strict rules of this school unless you plan on taking me along."

"Hold it." Senpai suddenly speaks. "You're all too young. You need someone older to look after you all."

"You're only a year older than any one of us." I point out.

"Still, I'm coming along."

"But Naoto-senpai, don't you have the student council to take care of?"

"I've got it covered. I've had things prepared in case something like this ever came along." I was a bit shocked at senpai's revelation. For being someone so adherent to our establishment's rules, as well as being the second highest in power on the student council, I had no idea she'd be so thoroughly prepared to break the rules and forgo her position.

"You're covered too, Yoko. So in case you were concerned about that don't be." Senpai gave off her familiar radiant glow. It was so out of place for something like this.

"D-Don't look at me like that! Saying something so juvenile…"

"But really- this isn't just some random trip. It's dangerous. Are you two still sure you want to come with us?" Harumi asks, the uncertainty that we have no idea what we're getting into hanging in her voice.

We both nod our heads without another word.

"Then it's settled." Yomi smiles, rising from her seat. "I'll get everything prepared. We'll get out of here in two days. That should give everyone time to mull things over." I had to give her credit. She had been amazingly optimistic this entire time. She ended up leaving the lunch table, but not before suddenly remembering something.

"Oh, Yoko-chan, could you come with me?"

I rise from my seat and follow her out of the room. We head outside and towards the staff-only payphone, one of seven across the school grounds.

"I'm just going to make this call, okay?"

"Wait, but how are you going to-"

She grins, pulling out a key. Apparently she'd nabbed the key to the payphones. I knew that senpai never would have given _her_ a key, so she must have stolen it or something.

"How did you manage to get your hands on that?"

"…Don't tell anyone, but I let Kanamori-sensei have his way with me. I picked this off of his clothes."

I stopped dead in my tracks.

"Are you serious?"

"Of course not." She laughs. I feel a bit embarrassed for believing something so ridiculous. "I _did_ pick this off his clothes, though. He was asleep at his desk one day and he left his master key in his chest pocket."

"That's still wrong, but a bit more practical." Kanamori-sensei was known for being one of the worst men alive. To his fellow staff members he was a well-rounded individual, but he actually tried to hit on senpai. That was the first and only time I've ever seen her genuinely angry.

Yomi opened the door to the phone booth and quickly dialed a number. I suppose that she knew the person on the other line. The phone rang for a few moments before I heard someone pick up on the other side. I could hear the entire conversation.

"_Yo. You want something?"_

"Ah, yes, is this Juusa-san?"

"_Yeah, that's me. How secure is your end?"_

"I'm the only one here."

"_Ah, okay. That's good. So what's up?"_

"Oh, right- I'm Yomi Sumidera. I ran into your boss Okonogi awhile back."

"_Heh. He told you he was my boss, did he? So anyway, lady, what's the problem?"_

"Here's the thing. I'm a student at St. Lucia Academy, and I'm looking for a way out."

"_Heh. You're not the only one. I know a girl there, actually. She's probably just as desperate as you are."_

"So here's the thing. I want you to break me, along with three other girls out of here in two days."

"_Alright lady, but it'll cost you a bit for four."_

"What's your price?"

"_Eh, make it 20,000 yen."_

"I can go 30,000 if you can drive us somewhere."

"_30,000, eh? How rich are you, kid?"_

"Enough that I can stick a wad of cash in your face, toss it over a bridge, and not even feel it." I _can't _believe she just said that.

"_Ah, alright. Where to then?"_

"Hinamizawa. I'm sure you've heard of it."

"_Hinamizawa, eh? I hope you don't want me to stick around and wait for you lot to show up- that is IF you show up- for 30,000."_

"Eh…I can do 35,000."

"_40,000 and I'll buy you all dinner on the way back."_

"Oooh. Done." I almost lose it there, but I suddenly realize she was probably planning on having him raise the price on her anyway. I had to remember that she's an expert at money-dealing.

"_Alright, so two days, right? What rooms are you all in?"_

"Just take care of 11C. The rest of them will be with me."

"_Alright, so that's taken care of. But one last thing I need to take care of…"_

"I'll hand you 10,000 when you show up at the door, 10,000 when we're clear of the school, and other 20,000 when we're on our way back."

"_No can do. I've gotta assume you'll die in there. I want 30,000 before we get there."_

"Alright, I'll do it."

"_Okay. So I'll see you all then."_ The man hung up.

"How the hell do you know a guy like that?" I ask her somewhat in disbelief.

"Eh…I've had people do worse before, actually."

"…." I wasn't sure how to react to that.

"Oh, that's right." Yomi reaches into her pocket. "I wanted to give you this. I found it in your box in the mailroom."

She hands me the letter. The state of the letter is eerily similar to Harumi's letter.

I open it without a second thought. My eyes scan the page to only find a single sentence.

_You were unwise to accept._

I fold it up immediately and head off to my room, offering a quick thank you to Yomi. Before she reacts I'm long gone.

Someone was watching. The person who sent the letter to Harumi was there in the lunch room. The _goddamn killer was watching us._

_But who the hell is it?_

If it were a man, they would have stood out. So it was in all probability a woman. It had to be someone relatively close to our age group on top of that. The teachers didn't socialize with students at all.

Could it really have been her older sister?

Perhaps it was her spirit, or something completely unrealistic like that. I'm not one to believe in youkai, but I have to clear out every option. I had no idea who or what it could have been, if they could have blended in so well.

But then something strikes me. Yomi had apparently ascertained this letter before lunch. So that meant that the killer might not have been in the room, but had somehow anticipated my reaction. So I was being stalked on top of that.

I flee to my room, knowing that Ushiromiya would already be there. I had no classes this afternoon due to festival preparations and I knew senpai would be able to cover for me.

That evening I think I might have gone too far with Ange- No, I don't think it went quite that far. All I knew was that when I suddenly snapped back to reality Ange was underneath me, with most of her clothing either missing or scattered around her and marks doubtlessly left by me around her neck. Everything beneath her waist was still intact, however. Her face was as unexpressive as ever.

"Mammon." She calls out. That's right- she'd started calling me that at random moments awhile back.

"Yeah?" I respond as if it's the most usual situation in the world.

"Do you love me?" A rather intelligent question.

"…Not really." I say as I force her into yet another kiss. "…But I love…Everything else…About you…"

"Oh. I see." She doesn't make any sound afterward.

Eventually I grow tired and move off of her. I fall next to her, far too tired to continue moving. I decide to simply sleep there, next to her.

"Don't you dare move until morning."

"Okay." That was all that she said.

I eventually dozed off, trying to keep the contents of the letter out of my mind.

* * *

><p>The next day passes by ridiculously slowly. I'm simply not in the mood, since I know I'm being watched. Lunch comes around and I more or less fall asleep. Yomi has a letter for one of us and they take it. I'm not even in a good enough mood to care what the contents of the letter are, and I nod off before too long. I'm actually looking forward to just being able to sleep adequately. I spent too much time last night abusing Ushiromiya. I knew I'd probably do the same thing tonight, but I'd also have to tell her that I was leaving the next day.<p>

Eventually it gets to the point where Harumi has to wake me up.

"Are you okay?"

"Uh-Yeah, I'm fine. I just didn't get much sleep."

"You're _sure_ you'll be good for tomorrow, right?" I see, so she was still concerned about what they were going to do.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I try to fake a smile.

"Just be careful, alright? You should take the rest of the day off." She says as she helps me stand.

"I'll be fine, don't worry." I reassure her.

"Ok. I'll trust you." She smiles as she grasps my hand to pull me along. That smile was far more genuine than any she had made the past several days. She was rather obviously grateful for what I was doing.

I actually felt a tad bit relieved after that, so the rest of the day went by at a much faster pace.

Around the time classes ended, senpai called for me. She brought me to the empty student council room. There wasn't a meeting today, so I was a bit curious as to what this was about.

"Did you need me to do something?" I asked her as she shut the door behind us.

"Not really… I just wanted to ask you something."

"Oh, alright. What is it?"

"…Why do you _really_ want to go to that place?"

"Huh?" I tried to play dumb. She'd already read me like a book, though.

"You're not taking this seriously enough, are you?" Her face was completely serious.

"Why _wouldn't_ I take something like this serious?"

"You're just in on this to stop the spread of that rumor, right? You're trying to correct a misconception that's been spreading around this school."

"Eh? Why would you say that?"

"Because I know you. You want to resolve this rumor and keep it from being spread. You hate rumors, so naturally you wouldn't pass up an opportunity to debunk what's practically a legend."

"…" I really had no counter for that. She was completely right, wasn't she?

"Look, you need a better reason to do something like this."

I figured there was no point in denying it at this point.

"…Yeah, I know….I know that I can't be getting myself killed over something so stupid…I just don't like admitting it."

"So then skip it completely."

"…No, no I won't."

"Why not? If you don't have a good enough reason-"

Oh she did _not just say that_.

"I won't! I'm not going to let my best friends go wandering into some scary place like that without me! I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to you all!" I'm fuming at senpai for the first time in years.

She smiles at me. "There's your answer."

"Huh? What the hell are you-" I stop myself short, realizing what she was getting at.

"You want to protect us, right? You don't want to leave us alone in a place like that. That's your reason."

"…"

She walked over and hugged me. She hadn't done that since grade school.

"You're really growing up, aren't you?"

"Hey, you're only a year older than me. You can't say that." My voice lacks its usual vibrancy when I say that. Eventually she lets me go.

"So then, we'll be counting on you." She leaves the room without another word.

That evening I had to tell Ange what was going to happen.

"Ange- listen, I'm going to be leaving the school for awhile."

"You are?" Was that emotion I heard in her voice?

"Uh, yeah. I am. It'll be a few days."

"I see. Be safe." She didn't say a word past that. But she'd somehow wanted to tell me to be safe.

I suddenly realized something.

I'd done terrible things to her, and she was innocent of all of it. My pride would never allow me to apologize, but I understood now.

She wasn't the mistake I could never correct- I was.

I was constantly breaking rules, even going as far as to abuse my roommate on a regular basis. I was using a phone booth for private calls, and I was going to break the most important of all the rules the school had. As much as I attacked people for their failures, I never so much as tried to reconcile for my own. I kept trying to fix everyone else's problems without so much as glancing in the direction of my own.

Ange was never the failure. I was. I'm the one who shouldn't be alive.

So perhaps if I did die tomorrow, I'd have some peace of mind.

I fell asleep a few minutes later, fully prepared for what was ahead of me.

* * *

><p>It was around five in the morning when Yomi suddenly woke me from my sleep. Ange was still fast asleep.<p>

"Wake up already. Geez, you aren't a light sleeper, are you?"

"Are we ready to go?" I completely ignore her dumb remark.

"Yep. We just have to wait in my room for another hour or so. He'll be on time, so don't worry."

I quickly change into my only other set of clothing and I head downstairs, glancing one final time at the sleeping Ange before I leave the room.

We swiftly move across from my dormitory to Yomi's, being careful to avoid the evening patrol. If this Juusa person was as skilled as Yomi said he was, considering how she was willing to spend 40,000 yen on the man, he shouldn't have as much trouble getting past them as we were having.

Eventually we made it inside and upon reaching her room I find that senpai and Harumi already there.

"Someone didn't get enough sleep." Senpai smiles at me.

"Shut up." I curtly respond. I still played the tsundere role that senpai enjoyed so much. It was the only reason I'd kept doing it, in all honesty.

"At least we're all here now." Harumi had apparently decided to spare me of further teasing. "So how much longer until this guy shows up?"

Just as she said that, as if he was waiting for someone to ask that question, the man in question emerges from the doorway. His silver hair is tied into a braid that you wouldn't be able to see from the front. He wears a rather old looking hat and what could be a bartender's outfit.

Whatever it was, it didn't make him look too much like a skilled stealth expert.

"Okay…So that's all four of you."

"Ah, Amasuka-san." Yomi smiles at him, handing him the 10,000 yen bill. He accepts it.

"You're lucky I'm doing this for so cheap. I go overseas; I get no more than 400 dollars out of this job."

"But if you didn't, I could just tell your boss." Yomi smiles at him, despite the light malice in her words.

"He's not my boss, you know? I'm freelance. But anyway, we'd best get going. I tried not to kill anybody, so they won't be out cold forever."

"Wait- you incapacitated the entire patrol team?" I was a bit skeptical of this man's abilities.

"Yeah. That was the plan, right? I don't charge as much to incapacitate guards. School patrol? Practically baby shit. Anyone else would charge you 100,000 outright for something like this."

"So why don't you?" I inquire.

"Repeat customers. Not necessarily you lot, but my reputation goes around."

"Really…" I let my skepticism leak out into my words.

"Look lady, you don't think to highly of me; you drop out now."

"Yoko-chan, don't worry. He's as good as they get." Yomi reassured me.

"Come on, let's get going already." Harumi chimes in, reminding me that we have a limited amount of time.

We hurry out of the building and across the courtyard. As he claimed, we find several of the school's patrol staff unconscious on the ground. We follow him across the rear side of the school, where I notice that one of the cameras was malfunctioning. Amasuka was apparently bold enough to park right in front of the school gate, so once we were off the school grounds we didn't have to go too far to reach his car.

The way the seating arrangement worked out, Yomi sat between senpai and Harumi while I sat in the front with our driver. It didn't take me very long to realize that I did not like this man. There was something about him I simply didn't like. Sitting next to him for an extended period of time wouldn't make things any easier.

"Alright, so getting to Hinamizawa will take around ten hours by car. So you ladies might as well just sleep until then."

"Ten hours? Can I…possibly hand another 10,000 your way to make it go a bit faster?" Yomi's deceptive tone was a bit unnecessary.

The man laughs. "Sorry lady, but I can't stop time. I'd still take the 10,000 if you're still offering it."

Yomi moaned. It was so strange for someone as shady as she was to be acting like a normal teenage girl.

Amasuka drove off into the distance. It was right around now that I suddenly realize the gravity of what I was doing. But I'd already made peace with everything. If I do indeed turn up dead I'll at least have no regrets.

About five hours passed by. It was well into the day. Amasuka kept driving with no signs of stopping or slowing down. I myself couldn't really sleep, whereas Yomi and the others were fast asleep. Apparently they'd been up all night. If I had done the same then maybe I'd be asleep like they were right now. I leaned against the window, staring at the road that rolled past us. It seemed that we were heading into a more rural section of the countryside.

"Can't sleep, lady?"

"…No, not really."

"You nervous or something?"

"Why'd you think that?"

"It's not every day some high school kid gets tossed into something like this."

"I'm just trying to protect my friends. That's all."

"You really want to throw that kind of responsibility on yourself? Are you really taking this seriously?" He looked at me with a sort of pitiful expression.

"You're not taking _me _seriously."

"Eh, you've got a point there." He laughed a bit. "But you should know…Bad things are gonna happen. You should know that by now."

"What makes you think that I don't?"

"You can't be serious if you do know, given how you're taking things."

"You mean I'm not aware that I'm probably going to die? Can you read _anyone_ efficiently? I'm pretty much an open book."

"I'll admit…" He turns his head to the side, gesturing towards Yomi. "I can't read that girl. Not one bit. But you I figured I'd have an easier time with."

"I know the risks. I'm willing to take them…After all, I shouldn't even be alive. Given failure I am." My face falls slightly.

He gives me a rather dubious look before laughing. Harumi almost stirs from the sound.

"Wow, you know lady? You're exactly like some other girl I know."

"Hm?"

"I swear she told me the exact same thing. But you know what, if that's how you've made peace with yourself, it's fine by me. Just don't chicken out at the last second."

"Did I make _any _indication that I was going to?"

"No, I'm just saying…Calm down, lady. Just don't do anything stupid is all. And who knows, you might live to tell the tale."

I mull over what he says as my eyes finally start to give way. I hadn't actually decided where I would go from here if I lived. But really, how great were those odds? This was obviously a trap of some sort and there was little chance a pack like us would be able to overcome whatever would be in our path. I'm fairly certain that Amasuka knew this. But now I knew. It was just as senpai had said. At first I believed myself to be solely interested in verifying some dumb rumor. But I realized now that I decided to do this for Harumi and Yomi, and so I'll stick around for Harumi and Yomi. Maybe if I could keep them out of danger, then maybe my death would be worth it. Perhaps there was some goodness in me after all.

That was my final resolution. And so I finally managed to close my eyes, ready for whatever would await me when I opened them.

* * *

><p>In all honesty, Hinamizawa was far worse a place than I ever could have imagined. The very earth beneath my feet made me understand just how <em>forsaken <em>this place was. It was roughly around noon, on a cloudless day, yet the sun over Hinamizawa was completely obscured by the dark veil in the sky. It was as if a cloud of death hung over this place. The wind howled much like a wolf's cry and the cicadas hummed without end in the distance.

"Well, we're here. Just head right up the path, through the woods, and you'll be in the village. Go have your fun and be back before tomorrow morning." Amasuka returns to his car and backs up, parking on the side of the road. Not that anyone would be driving up this way any time soon.

"Alright, let's get going. We're supposed to follow the river as far into the village as we can. That's where nee-chan's body was found." Harumi decides to take lead of the pack, with Yomi following behind her. Senpai and I hang back and talked things over for awhile.

"How far do you think this path goes?" I ask her, trying to break the silence that settled in a few minutes into our traveling. At this point the number of bugs and the heat were overwhelming us and taking our mind off of the rather harsh state we were in was for the best.

"I'm not really sure. I don't think we could really get too close to the village itself by car though. There are probably still authorities from the last incident around."

"Ah, I guess that makes sense." I can't seem to salvage the conversation from there.

My mind wanders back to the Devil Student rumors. I knew that this place was the hometown of Shion Sonozaki, as well as the town that killed her. Only now did it occur to me that perhaps Sonozaki Shion had survived the incident and had been involved in this whole situation from the beginning. I decided to keep my mouth shut, since she was found and confirmed dead years ago.

Maybe I should go back to my youkai theory. Yeah, like that'd do any better. Youkai- at least as far as I'd like to care- don't exist anymore than aliens or demons or anything else of the sort.

As we went deeper into the woods the cicadas grew louder. I wasn't sure how or why, but I almost felt like they were welcoming us into this place. It wouldn't be the strangest thing in the world, given how they don't have much company around here until recently- wait, am I insinuating that cicadas have feelings?

Senpai eventually grasps my hand. I'm not entirely sure why, and I almost try to make a joke out of it. But the look on her face is far too serious for that.

Eventually we got far enough into the woods that it became ridiculously hard to see. I almost tripped, but senpai's firm grip kept me from falling over. From the look in her eyes, it seemed that now she sensed immediate danger. I wondered if we'd even make it into the village before we were attacked.

As we go further in we lose sight of Yomi and Harumi in front of us.

"Hey, are you both alright up there?" I call out to them.

"Yeah we're-" Yomi's voice is suddenly cut off.

"Yomi, are you alright?" I call back.

"I heard something behind us. Stay sharp." Senpai whispers to me.

Senpai quickly turns around to find a strange figure looming towards us at a fast pace.

"Go find Harumi, I'll stay here!" She shouts urgently. What the hell was she thinking?

"What the hell are you talking about? You'll get _killed_!"

"I can at least hold him off long enough for you two to get out of here. Just keep following the river into the village. You can't escape from here this way- hide out in the village and try to flee north. If I can get at him with this I'll meet up with you all." Senpai brandished a knife- no, it was more of a dagger.

"Where the hell did you grab that?"

"You'd be amazed to know what kind of stuff that Juusa guy has in the back of his car. Now go!"

I actually decide to listen to her.

"If you die, I swear to god I'll kill you."

"That sounds fair. Now get going." She smiles at me with her usual smile.

I finally decide to turn and run as far off as I can. I'm not particularly good at running, especially in this shitty uniform, but at least I'm able to get far enough away from senpai that I won't get in her way. It occurs to me that she actually had taken some form of self-defense lessons a long time ago, although I'm not too sure how those would help with trying to kill someone who was already a natural killer. I doubt she'll come out alive, but I had to abandon her.

I'm not sure where Harumi went but Yomi was probably with her. I continue running blindly in the direction I think will take me to Hinamizawa, but in the end I'm not even remotely sure where I'm headed. I can still hear the river, so I assume I'm going in the right direction. The river leads to the north, so following it up would be my best bet of finding the others.

I continue to dash through the woods as fast as I can. I absolutely can't get caught at this point. I've decided that I would accept my death, but I would keep myself from such a fate for as long as possible.

Eventually I'm certain I'm far enough away that I can slow down and take in what just happened.

We were attacked.

Senpai stayed behind to fight our attacker.

I had no idea where Yomi or Harumi were.

Senpai was probably dead by now.

I was probably next.

I decided it would be best to keep moving. I continued onward through the brush as the day passed on by.

I wasn't sure how long I had been walking for, but the lack of the sun in the sky didn't make figuring out what time it was any easier. As I cut my way through the disorganized shrubbery I end up tripping and landing flat on my face. I'm really not cut out for this sort of thing.

But I find that I tripped not on a branch or log or anything- but rather a decaying corpse. I cover my mouth to keep myself from screaming as to avoid drawing any more attention to myself. Judging from the clothing the corpse is wearing, this man was a police officer. I'm about to turn and leave before I suddenly notice something.

His gun is still holstered.

I free the gun from the holster and search his pockets for any spare ammo. I'm not sure what possessed me to do this, but I guess having a weapon I have no experience in using is better than having no weapon at all. I just have to remember to hold it with both of my hands when I shoot it or else my wrist will break.

As I'd nearly shot Oishi-san with one of these, I was able to verify that the safety was indeed off already. Why this pistol was holstered with the safety off I wasn't entirely sure.

I decide to strap the holster to my thigh. It would hide the gun and I would have some element of surprise. It fit rather well, but it made running feel a bit odd.

I continue onward, now with a small chance of survival strapped to my thigh.

* * *

><p>As I made my way through the woods with some sort of newfound confidence in the fact that I could effectively shoot someone to death, I eventually made it into a very small clearing. It was large enough that I could see the slightly darker clouds above me. It seemed that the sun was starting to set.<p>

Suddenly my eyes snap back to the scene in front of me. I hear a strange sound. It was most likely my assailant. God, how stupid can I be to stop in an open area?

But it is in fact Harumi who appears from the woods.

"Yoko-chan!" She runs over to me and embraces me.

"Harumi, where's Yomi?"

"I don't know…We were separated awhile ago. What if she's already-"

"We can't assume the worst yet. We did know that this would happen, right?"

"Yeah. I know, but I didn't want anything to happen to her…If it were me, then I wouldn't really mind as much."

Apparently Harumi and I had a similar mentality. We wanted to save everyone else, even if we ourselves ended up dead in the process.

"W-What about Naoto-senpai? Where's she?" Her head shot up.

I shook my head. "Probably either looking for us or dead already. She stayed behind so I could find you guys."

Harumi's face fell.

"We should find the entrance to the village. Senpai said she'd head straight there if she could get away."

"…Okay. Let's go. I found the entrance about an hour ago and went looking for you. It's this way."

"…Actually, since we haven't been found yet, maybe we should rest for a bit." I suddenly have that idea. I'm almost certain from the look on her face that she hasn't stopped moving for about as long as I have.

"…Okay. We can do that."

We both sit on an edge of the clearing for awhile so we could run at any given moment. Harumi stands up to stretch for a moment. I decide to speak my mind.

"I really just want to know who would do this sort of thing to us. Killing people for trying to get into the village? I mean, I found a dead cop a few hours ago, so chances are whoever it is wants no visitors at all."

"…I still think it's my sister. I can't seem to think of anyone else."

"Is it still just because of that letter?"

"Yeah…There's absolutely no way that anyone could've forged that letter. She's the only one who would be able to write a letter intentionally like that. I'm absolutely certain."

My own mind wanders back to the letter. Indeed, the letter was written perfectly. Hatsune Edogawa would be the only person who would be able to write a letter in that incredibly strict form. The letter that I received, which apparently predicted my decision, was most likely written by the same person- someone who was apparently stalking me in the lunch room that day and probably days earlier. Case in point- it was someone who could both stalk me without being noticed and be able to write that letter. Perhaps my youkai theory that I've been bashing this entire time _was _true after all.

"No one else fits the bill, huh?"

"No… She's the only one. There's only one person in the world who could have written that letter. That's why I believe she's still here."

I stand up to stretch myself.

And in that instant I suddenly knew everything.

Private letters sent from Hatsune Edogawa to her little sister, Harumi Edogawa. Only Hatsune could ever write such a deliberately strange letter. My letter, written in anticipation of my actions and handed to me by Yomi hours later, most likely written in the same form. Someone who could stalk me without being noticed and anticipate my response.

"…No, that's not quite true."

"Hm? What's not quite true?"

I pull the concealed weapon out of the holster on my thigh and point it straight at her. Her eyes widen as she's about to protest.

"There are _two_ people who could have written that letter."

She looks at me in disbelief.

"The person on the receiving end is just as capable of forging an otherwise unique letter. Well, am I correct?" Secretly I was praying that I was completely wrong about this. I don't know how I would react if she really were behind everything.

Twenty three seconds passed. They felt more like twenty three minutes.

Her eyes are still widened, but her face of shock turns into a smile. And then in a matter of seconds she breaks out into a sickening laugh. My heart sinks instantly. It's the worst feeling in the world for me.

"Stop laughing, you damn fool." I command her. Dammit, that hurt worse than I thought it would.

She eventually stops. "You know, I'm more surprised that it was _you _who figured it out." Her voice is filled with a mixture of malice and what appeared to be wickedness. It was as if she were bullying Ushiromiya. Perhaps that was the real side of her all this time.

"You prepared that second letter. From there it was just listening to you say the same thing a few times."

"I guess that was my mistake. But you did turn down all the warnings I sent you, so I figured an ominous letter would be just the thing. Poor Yomi- making things go by a whole lot faster by being ignorant throughout the whole thing. But it's not like you or Naoto-senpai ever clued in either." At this moment I'm feeling incredibly betrayed.

"You want to keep talking like that? Remember I have a gun trained on your forehead."

"Ah, right. I almost forgot. So what do you want to know?"

"Everything. What the hell did you _think_ I wanted to know?" My voice is about to crack but I manage to keep it as low as possible. I can't lose focus now- after all, who knows what sort of weapons she could have on her.

The smile on her face becomes less demonic. "I'll be honest with you. I didn't intend for you or senpai to be dragged along in this. But you both insisted, and I had a feeling that you would. So I wrote up that letter and placed in the mailroom before classes started. It's unfortunate that you're way too stubborn. You probably wanted to help me just for the sake of _fixing_ things, didn't you? You wanted to come here because of that Devil Student thing, right?"

"I'm not as heartless a bitch as you are. Keep talking." God dammit, how the hell did she get it so spot on? But then again, she _is _my best friend. And the fact that she didn't want me involved might have been one of the last signs of the Harumi I knew.

"Yomi was ignorant the entire time as I've mentioned. But I spoke to her the night before. I told her about the letter, and how it was directly connected to her brother's death. Needless to say she was more than willing to join me."

"So why this whole incident? Why were you planning to come here in the first place? Was it really to just find your sister's head?"

"Not quite…You see, I myself am a former resident of this village."

"_What?"_

"My sister and I lived here with our parents until the dam incident that led to families that supported the building of a dam that would destroy this village being persecuted by the rest of the townsfolk. My family supported the dam being built, only because we believed that the Kimiyoshi family, as well as the Sonozakis, were far too powerful for their own good."

"Sonozaki-"

"Right. The Devil Student rumors? They were true, for the most part. But as for why I returned to this village? With the more recent crop of sacrifices…Let's just say that things are going to get a bit…_lively_…around here." Her voice is filled with malice as she says this.

"So how involved are you in this whole mess?"

"Not too involved…You see, I needed Yomi to get out of the school in the first place, but letting her go free would be far too troublesome. So I wanted to take Yomi along as a welcoming offering. But she managed to flee before I could get into the village. So now _she _will kill me on sight. It's unfortunate, but it's something I have to accept. I never had a backup plan assuming that you figured things out, after all. "

"Is that really everything? Are you not even sad about your sister's death?"

"Did I ever say I wasn't? But she was a sacrifice. In her and her friends' deaths, this place will be revived." Her eyes displayed a bit of lunacy in them. Whatever was left of my dearest friend, it was gone now.

"…This is ridiculous."

"It's the truth. I can't tell you anything else."

"…" I wasn't sure how to react. I'd been pulled into this purely out of feelings towards my friends. But now, I'm not sure why I'm even here.

Suddenly, as if out of nowhere, we hear a strange sound in the brush.

"Damn, already?" Hatsune looks in the direction of the noise. "I guess it's too late now."

The noise grew louder and I frantically search for its source.

And out of nowhere, a figure shoots out of the black, swiftly grabbing Harumi and disappearing into the black.

Despite the fact that she was evil in nature, she was still my friend.

And now she was gone, like all the others.

The figure re-emerged in the treetops. Now that I have a better look, it appears to be a woman. I immediately go with the first choice as to who it could be.

"…So is it you? Are you the Devil Student? Well? Answer me dammit!" I point the gun in its direction despite the fact that my hands are shaking in a mixture of fear and anger.

"You know what? Don't answer me. I'm gonna kill you anyway!"

I take the first shot. She avoids the shot with seemingly inhuman speed. She runs up toward me on my left side but I manage to get away fast enough before she can grab me. She flies up into the trees and comes crashing down on top of me from above. How she'd managed to get directly above me like that in a matter of seconds I'm not sure, but I managed to force her off of me for long enough that I can fire another round, the last one I have in the pistol. I graze her somewhere given her hesitation when she comes at me with a sword. I know that in the time it takes me to reload I would be finished.

I suddenly cut back to what Amasuka said earlier.

"_Just don't do anything stupid is all. And who knows, you might live to tell the tale."_

I take off running into the woods. I didn't care where I was going, I just run.

I can hear the sounds of my assailant becoming progressively louder. I'm certain that she'll catch up in no time.

I eventually become too tired and am forced to slow down. I suppose that I was bound to run out of energy sometime.

The Devil Student lands in front of me, and stalks closer each second. I know that the end is at hand, but at least I managed to hold out this long. But now I'm ready. I'm ready to die.

"Go right ahead. Do it."

The Devil Student stands before me, never so much as making a move.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Kill me, like you killed everyone else already!"

But she still did not move.

"Are you just going to stand there?"

Why the hell isn't she going to kill me? Isn't that her goal?

"You know what, fuck it, I'll do it myself!" I point the gun to my head.

But in that instant she moves and removes the gun from my grasp. She stands there before me, not so much as making a sound. But in a matter of seconds she disappears to leave me to myself.

I'm all alone now. I have no real way of killing myself- well, sans the more obvious method. But my fingers are too filed down at this point to be viable enough for me to scratch my throat out.

I have no way out. I have no idea where I am, so moving around would be pointless. I crash onto the ground. I might have broken my leg but I don't see a reason to care.

The Devil Student indeed. Leaving me here to rot and die all alone.

I was alive, however, even for just the moment. I couldn't give up hope that the others were still alive. After all, I hadn't seen a single one of them be killed. I abandoned senpai before I could watch her die. Yomi was missing. Harumi had been taken by the Devil Student, but there was still a chance she was alive.

But in the end, as sleep overtook my tired body, I realized something. I was being far too optimistic. Perhaps if I admit the truth now, I'd die faster in the end.

They were all dead. And I would soon join them.

There was no escape from this terrible place.

After all, it was as it is said:

When the cicadas cry, there are no survivors.

* * *

><p><em>Invitation Chapter Result:<br>_Naoto Sakagami- Missing.  
>Harumi Edogawa- Missing.<br>Yoko Narukami – Missing.  
>Ange Ushiromiya- Lost and alone, with no one, not even her precious delusions, to comfort her.<br>Yomi Sumidera- Missing.


	10. Bio Study Observation 06

**Bio-Study-Observation 06 : Subject ACER-0138234691**

I went in to discuss this important development that he wanted to discuss. I determined from his expression walking in that he was completely serious, so I decided to give him my full attention. But what I received was a little less than insane. I managed to gather from what he was saying that he was the victim of what I believe to be nightmares that he calls visions. They are akin to visions, however. He claims to dream of people dying, mainly due to the events of the Hinamizawa Disaster. The actors that we've already confirmed- Shion and Mion Sonozaki- are present in his dreams as well. I wasn't really sure how much of a breakthrough this was- until he started to recall other names.

Rena Ryuugu

Rika Furude

Satoko Houjou

Teppei Houjou

Oryou Sonozaki

Satoshi Houjou

These were the names I managed to pull from him during that session. I had Detective Reiji run off the names since he had no other purpose at this office. At this point his dreams became far more relevant, so I had him divulge as many details as he possibly could. He began to describe one of the scenarios of an earlier dream that he had: A group of people, traveling to Hinamizawa, and two of them turning on the rest. He described the methods in which each person was killed. Midway through taking notes I had Saika hand me the case file that we were granted by the precinct during our interview with the only suspect they came up with regarding the murders. As I had expected, the details that he was divulging regarding the deaths of these nameless people were virtually identical to the conditions of the bodies in the Watchers serial murder case. I knew for fact that this man hadn't been informed of the killings- I'd made sure Saika never brought it up. I even taped all the conversations she had with the man. It's not that I don't trust her, it's just that I'm a bit paranoid about what goes on in that room, given how two of my closest friends are now going insane because of the man.

But regardless of any of that I knew now- this man was dreaming about things that happened or were going to happen. They probably were visions in the end, and this was proof. But as I pressed him for more information, I realized something. His dreams about the people of Hinamizawa- there were several, and in each situation they died differently. But knowing what I knew about the man who called himself Riku Furude, it's almost as if there was something intertwining with what he told me and what this man was saying. It was very small and very vague, but it was there. With what little I knew, and with the details in which the people in the village died in his dream- I had found validity in what he was saying. But why he was dreaming about such strange things I would never know. I just knew that it was incredibly important. That's all this really boils down to.

I know that this might look like a psychiatrist's journal entry after this, but considering how I've basically been given the job (but not the pay, see how I keep casually mentioning that?) of a psychiatrist, I'll take the penalty, assuming if I even get one. I decided to get a bit friendlier with him after that. Perhaps if I got as close to him as Saika was, then perhaps I could get him to tell me other things. I was almost certain he was still hiding things from me (although I didn't have any proof). So I decided that the first thing I should do is come up with some sort of nickname for him. Of course, I was terrible with this sort of field. It didn't help that I barely knew the first thing about this man- hell; _he_ didn't even know the first thing about himself. So I mulled it over for a bit. What I came up with was the most awkward thing I could come up with. All I really knew about the guy was that he could dream about people dying. So I figured perhaps "Death Dreamer" would work out nicely. Although that would make me sound a bit moronic, so I decided to change things up. I thought back to when he first was admitted here. He was on the brink of death- perhaps that was how he managed to be so in tune with death. This wasn't all there was to it, however. One day he had suddenly started repeating three numbers and a letter for the bulk of the morning. I was later told that a patient had died in a room labeled with those three numbers and that letter and due to a small electrical surge that day due to a thunderstorm, _power had been cut to that room_. In addition to this, Saika had mentioned once that he'd said that the flowers by the window in his room should be watered out of the blue one day. She said it would probably be alright to leave them out for another day. But when the sun rose the next day, the flowers had completely withered. Before I knew it he'd probably be able to poke me somewhere and be able to kill me that way. (Eh, probably not. I never did like that show, though.) So I came to this conclusion. He was not necessarily in tune with people dying, but rather the _end _of things.

And so I decided that I will call him End-Dreamer.

Of course he was rather dumbfounded when I walked in that morning, greeting him with that rather stupid sounding name. It was a bit shaky as a start, but he eventually grew on it. He actually ended up divulging details on the boy Satoshi Houjou. The details were surprisingly accurate from the file that I'd gotten from Reiji. He seemed to have been acquainted with the boy, and seeing as how Satoshi Houjou went missing years before the Hinamizawa Disaster, it further proved our point that he was a long time resident of Hinamizawa. It wasn't really all that much, but at least he was able to confirm our intell.

Because of this I was certain the information on Rika Furude was just as accurate. But I'll discuss that more later on, because I feel it's a bit too important to just be tacked on to the end of this report.

I'll wrap this up here. I don't see any point in discussing what's been happening to Mido and Aria, since their conditions haven't changed. But I have been working around the clock for a way to find some psychological cure for them. If they both end up dead…Ah, hell if I know what I'll do.

**Report End **

**Please turn to page 15**

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>_

And so this string of updates finally comes to a close. Why it took so long to get the Invitation Chapter up if I wrote it a few days ago? Because I had to go through and re-edit the story about five times. Hopefully that won't happen again.


	11. Fortune Chapter

**Fortune Chapter**

_In this abbreviated tale you will be given a lesson in the whims of lady luck, and how even the smallest glimmer of chance can be lost in a matter of seconds. When one places their fate in the cards, they cling to a small sliver of chance. That sliver, more often than not, is snatched away before the beholder's very eyes. But in this world, where one's luck cannot run out, perhaps the very definition of luck will be at stake. But beware the relevance of such musings about luck, especially in the eyes of the user-defined truth._

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

**_The pivotal actors are as follows (perspective character get's the bold):  
><em>**Rika Furude  
>Shion Sonozaki<br>Mion Sonozaki  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Rena Ryuugu  
>Mamoru Akasaka<br>**The Unreliable Narrator **(You should know what he looks like by now)

Rika Furude sat in the darkened room, having shut the blinds to block out the sun's rays. She'd been locked up in her room like this, with Satoko having been taken in by her uncle, trying to determine the source of this new phenomenon that seemed to affect not just her, but the rest of her friends.

She stared at the pair of dice that rested in her palm. She already knew what would happen if she rolled them, but she did so anyway.

Snake-eyes again.

This had been happening all morning- every single one of her rolls with the pair of dice had resulted in snake-eyes. It was as if every single role was rigged to turn out the exact same way. She'd done the same thing with five other pairs of dice, and another six that she snuck out of the game boards in Mion's locker. Every single role turned out exactly the same way.

But it wasn't just with her, or her dice rolling. It had been happening all over town, but more specifically to the people involved in the incident she was so used to. Keichi had begun to win game after game. Shion had gotten a raise from the Angel Mort management almost out of the blue. Mion succeeded in courting Keichi, only a matter of moments before Rena did. Rena was supposed to have killed her step-mother, but it seemed that the body had yet to be found. Satoko still had yet to come down with the syndrome and Keichi had yet to try and kill her uncle.

But most importantly- Miyo Takano and Tomitake were both still alive. They were both alive and well, and no murders had occurred after the Watanagashi festival. If not for Teppei's reappearance, Rika would have been fooled into believing that the cycle was over.

Rika came to the conclusion that because Teppei had appeared and that Rena had killed her step-mother, that maybe this limitless luck didn't apply to absolutely everyone, but she was not completely sure. She decided to seek out Keichi, reasoning that depending on whether or not he could do the same thing she could with the dice would determine whether or not this situation absolutely applied to everyone. She thought the situation could have been similar to the small changes in past fragments that had gotten her hopes up. After all, it could have just been the fragment playing out slightly differently than usual and death was still imminent for them all.

Perhaps this was a cruel joke imposed upon her by fate. Or perhaps this was a one in a million chance- a chance for her to finally break free from the chains imposed upon her by her cursed existence. Rika hadn't been able to take any initiative on the matter, but she assumed that when the time came she could use this endless luck to her advantage.

She encountered Keichi only a few blocks away from the shrine. Apparently he'd been on his way to see her, which saved her the time of heading all the way towards his house. Ignoring the fact that Keichi had wanted to talk to her about something, she had him roll the dice.

Snake-eyes once again.

So she wasn't the only one who could perform this trick. So it was limitless luck, and not just for herself, but for the others as well. She quickly thanked Keichi and headed off into town, eager to try and test this newfound condition of this fragment elsewhere.

She'd gone to that competition that was going on at the game store, to determine how widespread this luck was. Keichi was absent this time, but aside from that everything was perfectly normal. Rika had gone to the final round, having managed to cheat her way, which voided the luck factor entirely. The match between her and Mion ended in a draw, given how their luck was matched. It seemed that the spread of the limitless luck was exclusive to her friend and, by assumption, Tomitake and Takano as well.

After heading home, she decided that there was still a way to void the cycle, but she had to make use of all of her potential resources. She had yet to determine if the luck had spread to people involved in this incident outside the village.

She decided to call Akasaka. In most scenarios, he would not answer the phone, and as such she would never call him as a means to escape from her fate, since it was impossible. But if he was there, it meant that there was a strong chance that she _could _void the cycle.

That was why she was overjoyed when his voice crackled in from the other end of the line.

After about fifteen minutes of pleading with him, she managed to convince him to travel to Hinamizawa. Given how he still had his family to take care of and going off for no real reason wasn't that smart an idea to begin with, Rika was almost shocked to hear him accept. It turned out that his wife and Miyuki, his daughter, were off somewhere else for the week and he could go to the village without much issue.

Of course now Rika was almost completely convinced that she could break out of the cycle. She was almost certain that she could do it now that Akasaka was going to arrive.

Akasaka appeared as it had been arranged. Rika tried to explain to him the details of what was going to occur. He didn't believe her at first, but a call to Rika's house from Oishi claiming that _someone had tipped off the police about the Yamainu's operation _made him believe everything she had said. So it was determined that Rika would be guarded and the chances of her death would be almost zero. Akasaka was even able to stay for an extended period of time himself, furthering her chances for success.

Of course Takano ended up disappearing in the end, except her "burnt corpse" never turned up. Tomitake left the village as he had planned and all of Rika's friends were relatively safe. The quantity of policemen in the village was still relatively small, but the village was well aware of what was going to happen. With so many people wary, there was little chance the purge would occur.

Around June 25th, only days before the end of June and the day Rika was waiting with bated breath for, Rena's stepmother's corpse was reportedly found and Teppei Houjou was determined _guilty _of her death, given the relationship the two were in and fingerprint evidence pointing directly towards him (most likely due to the relationship they were in as well) found around the points of her body that had been the most damaged. Satoko was set free and she was able to move back in with Rika. In the aftermath, Satoko had become a lot closer to Shion, who'd decided to help her in place of her brother. The scene couldn't have been any more perfect.

Meanwhile at the Sonozaki residence Mion had apparently taken notice of a case of Hinamizawa Syndrome in Shion and had managed to contain it before she lashed out. She almost faltered, but disaster was narrowly avoided thanks to Keichi realizing that the Mion who had approached him the day before was in fact Shion. Keichi himself hadn't had much going on but hadn't had any sort of notable issues. Shion had been admitted to Irie's clinic, and all was well.

Rena had once again returned to her normal self. Having been set free of the bonds of that woman's death, she was as relieved as could be. She participated in club for the first time in over a week, according to Satoko who had been going to school and relaying all of this information to Rika who remained guarded in her own home.

The scenario was perfect. It was June 30th, and the village was still untouched by the Yamainu. There were no gassings, there were no meaningful deaths, but most importantly there were no means for anything terrible to befall her or her friends. The police had packed their bags and Akasaka had returned home, but Rika was sure that she wouldn't need any protection anymore. Indeed, in just twenty four more hours the cycle would finally be broken.

But as one would expect, things did not go as planned for the poor girl. It's a shame, considering the look of pure delight on her face when she truly thought she was free. But such is the whim of fate- or more specifically, the whim of chance.

The probability was set in her favor. The chance for failure was relatively close to zero. But in her state of joy, in her excitement over finally having the best fragment possible, one small, seemingly insignificant detail slipped her mind.

She woke up that morning, suddenly wondering what Keichi had been up to. She'd heard the least about him. He'd been able to discern Shion's true identity, but past that all she knew was that Mion had been regularly dating him. There was a smaller amount of information on Keichi than on anyone else.

Then she remembered. The day she stumbled upon her endless luck- Keichi had wanted to ask her something.

She had no idea what it was at the moment, but not that long after she'd probably assumed it was something like _"Hasn't Mion been acting strange?"_

Rika received an incredibly cryptic- or perhaps _unintelligible _was a better word- call from Keichi that morning. She couldn't understand a word of what was being said, but it was the first time she'd heard from him in weeks. Upon pressing Satoko, she learned that Keichi had taken the last three days off from school.

Of course, against her better judgment, Rika went straight for the Sonozaki residence- the place Keichi had managed to convey that he was currently at. The scene was all too familiar. She'd seen it many times before. Of course she had been completely taken off guard this time. She was almost free. But it appeared that things were not as they seemed to begin with.

She saw Keichi, dead on the floor. He'd been either stabbed by whichever one of the twins was still up and about or stabbed by his own two hands as the body seemed to depict. Off in the far corner of the room was the similarly positioned corpse of Teppei Houjou, who had somehow been pulled out of the authorities hands and into the hands of the current killer.

Then she appeared behind her. One of the two twins appeared behind her with an axe in her hand. It was as atypical as possible. But Rika wouldn't allow herself to be killed the same way again. She decided the best course of action was to try and evade her- running would be futile. The Sonozaki sibling began to swing somewhat wildly, but eventually the axe ended up stuck in Keichi's skull, which was simply a mere accident turned into a huge disadvantage for her. Rika took her chances, pulled the knife out of Keichi's chest and slammed it into "Shion's."

The woman fell over, dying a few seconds later due to the rapid blood loss and her pierced heart.

Rika sighed, before screaming in agony. Just like that everything was lost.

But before she had proper time to mourn, she heard noise. It was most likely a Yamainu operative who was on their way to kill her.

But no, Rika wouldn't have that._ She'd _do the axe chopping this time. She drew the axe from where it had been lodged and moved over silently to the door. The sound grew closer and closer. She planned to quickly open the door and kill the assailant. Eventually, the sound stopped and Rika assumed that the person was on the other side of the door. She swung it open and brought the axe down.

But little did she know that on the other side of the door was Rena, who'd heard Rika's cry, and assuming that someone had killed her she had readied a cleaver, the same one she used to kill her step mother, that she planned to swing downward at the first sign of the door moving. She'd heard Rika's heavy breath, and unable to determine that it was her, brought the cleaver down on her right shoulder, while Rika's axe nailed her square in the head.

Rena collapsed forward, the cleaver still lodged in Rika's shoulder. Her weight dragged the cleaver down, effectively wedging itself halfway through Rika's body. The smaller girl collapsed much the same way. As she fell something slipped out of her pocket.

The pair of dice. They slipped out of her pocket and hit the ground, bouncing into the air and landing a few feet away. Rika, through her clouded vision, tried to determine what the result of the accidental role was. It was hazy, but she was absolutely sure of what she saw.

It was snake-eyes once again.

She passed away shortly after.

Once more there were no survivors. The villagers were gathered at the school house and gassed to death at approximately 11:59 PM. When July 1st rose upon the village, the village was wiped out.

As she died, Rika realized something. Perhaps she was never lucky to begin with.

* * *

><p><em>Fortune Chapter Result:<br>_Rika Furude – Death by sheer misfortune.  
>Maebara Keichi- Death by love or death by jealousy?<br>Rena Ryuugu – Death by sheer misfortune.  
>Mamoru Akasaka- Lives in denial over the incident that he may have prevented.<br>Oishi Kuraudo- Lives to tell the tale despite having lost his job along with mostly everything else he had.  
>The Unreliable Narrator- About as lucky as anyone else.<p> 


	12. Yokai's Daybreak Chapter

_**Author's Note**_

In a sort of mini-celebration of the release of the Higanbana no Saku Yoru Ni visual novel, I've decided to do a _very _slight crossover chapter here and have added a character to this story that appears in the game (so if you have no idea who he is and I didn't give a description of him that's why). There are absolutely no spoilers to the visual novel in this chapter (since it has yet to be translated), so you needn't be concerned about that. He doesn't have any influence on the overall story either, so he's basically a cameo who I threw in for no other reason.

* * *

><p><strong>Yokai's Daybreak Chapter<strong>

_This tale is significantly different from the material you are used to. Instead of a series of events that pertain to the Hinamizawa Disaster, you will be subjected to a very different scenario where the characters you've come to know will be set against each other in a battle royal. This tale is more for raw entertainment value than anything else. But beware the user-defined truth, as despite the nature of this tale the truth has elements hidden here as well. I hope you enjoy this action-packed tale, but I hope you do not become too engrossed in its flashy and style-based nature. In all honesty, if you do enjoy this story that much, I'll have no choice but to have you see our local psychologist. _

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (Perspective character gets the bold): _

Ryuugu Rena  
>Sonozaki Shion<br>Sonozaki Mion  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Houjou Satoko  
>Furude Rika<br>The Black Tea Gentleman  
><strong>The Unreliable Narrator<strong> (Faceless)

The crowd went wild as the grand show's host appeared on the stage, as if out of nowhere. He stood on the marble, checkerboard patterned, circular platform, gleaming at the crowd with his trademark smile plastered upon his face. The crowd went wild with the anticipation of the oncoming performance by a number of individuals the man had selected for the show beforehand.

He'd become a tad famous for these performances. But of course, in order to have gained such fame from a diverse audience of people and creatures from every corner of the Sea of Fragments, these performances were not of the classical or poetic sort, where actors would project the roles of men and women from some of the greatest tales of all time. No, in these performances, the actors were murderers- or more specifically, people who would kill without a second thought, ignoring all reason. But this performance was said to be the most anticipated yet- a battle between adolescent teenagers and even younger children. It is said to be a battle between close friends- friends who would go so far as to kill each other if they were brought to do it. These actors were special, in the sense that their reasons to kill were far more personal than that of any of the other killers featured before, which was received with much more excitement than any performance before it.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Yokai and Demons, Witches and Wizards! I, the Black Tea Gentleman, welcome you to tonight's performance!"

The crowd goes wild as he bows dramatically.

"Tonight we have quite a show prepared for you all. But first things first. We need to introduce our lovely cast for the evening!"

The crowd goes quiet as the man begins the introductory phase of the evening.

"Tonight we have a group of tightly knit friends who have nothing but feelings of affection for each other. These friends have done many things together, and are as close as can be. But with the grand prize of their most precious wish being granted up for grabs, they will do anything and everything to become the victor. These close friends will fight to the death in our glorious arena!"

The man claps his hands and a spotlight focuses on one end of the circular arena.

"Our first contestant! The elder of two siblings, and the future successor to a prestigious family that was once tied to the Yakuza. She may be young, but she knows the pain and anguish of unrequited love. Her jealousy and greed are what drive her in this battle. A competitive game player herself, she has been deemed by those around her as a master of games. But will she be able to use her cunning and wit to conquer _this _game? I give you- Mion Sonozaki!"

The crowd cheers as the seemingly lifeless Mion appears as if out of thin air where the spotlight had been focusing.

"Our second contestant! The daughter of a slaughtered family, she lived on through sheer force of will and with the love of her older brother, who was taken from her as well. Since then, she has been able to live on through the comfort of her best friend, and has found an older brother in one of her dear friends."

The audience makes a collective sigh, as if expressing fake sympathy for the girl.

"But in the end, there is only one thing she truly wants, and will fight to the death for it. She is a master of traps, and has fooled many a man with her cunning. She has been known to insult her enemies into submission, even! Perhaps this conniving child, despite being so young, may have the mettle to usurp the game master! I give you- Satoko Houjou!"

The crowd cheers once again as Satoko appears out of thin air, in a similar state to Mion.

"Moving right along- Our third contestant! She is the sibling of Mion Sonozaki. She has lived her life in her sister's place, and has watched her fall in love much like she had. But alas, she cannot find completion in love, as she fell for the late brother of Houjou. Because of her deep and unending love, she has become a broken woman, willing to do anything for the love she lost! Perhaps she truly is the most ruthless killer of them all….I give you- Shion Sonozaki!"

The crowd continues the cheers as Shion appears. The audience gasps and the cheers grow louder as the bloodied katana appears within her grasp.

"Our fourth contestant! A tragic girl, warped by her delusions and fear. She has been deemed insane, and all because of a near absurd belief in the god of her village. She remains ever faithful, but remains living in fear because of the terror that her god has rained upon her. She is akin to a crazy heretic! And her reason for fighting? A place where she can be happy." He placed pitiful emphasis on the last sentence he spoke.

The crowd collectively laughed at the description of the girl. It seemed that the crowd wanted to see the poor girl as a sort of insane lunatic- the crowd immensely enjoyed contestants with such a back-story.

"But don't take her too lightly! She may be a lunatic, but her lunacy gives her unending strength! She is capable of a great many things, but above all- murder. I give you- Rena Ryuugu!"

The crowd continues their unending cheer as Rena appears next to Shion, her eyes filled with terror. A meat cleaver appeared in her grasp, which made the audience converge in a collective "Ooh." They hadn't gotten enough out of humiliating her just yet.

"Now for our fifth contestant! He is an outsider. He was born outside the village he now resides in, but has been accepted by this group of friends, all of which have fallen in love with him!"

The crowd goes wild. Indeed, the secrets and feelings of these children were exciting to expose and witness.

"But what they do not know may indeed hurt them…He has been exposed in many ways, he has been deemed both a genius and an ingrate, he has failed at a grand deal more than any other man on earth, but on top of all of that he is guilty of the assault of a small child!" Of course, he would never specify _what kind _of assault he was talking about. The truth would be left to the gleeful minds of the audience to discern.

The crowd was mixed with gasps and cheers. They wanted to see this boy, if only for the mental image they had of him.

"Without any further ado, I give you- Keichi Maebara!"

The crowd cheered louder than they had for Shion when Keichi appeared, holding two handguns much like a hero in an action movie.

"And now, our final contestant! At first glance, she would appear to be an innocent, sweet little girl. But give her a few drinks and she becomes something far more sinister. She's spent years and years suffering in the same, endless month of June, and she has become hardened and ruthless as a result! She's the cruelest witch in the world, and could probably give even the Endless Witch herself a run for her money! I give you- Rika Furude!"

The crowd cheered as Rika appeared. They were amused by her small body, but were suddenly made very interested given the huge scythe that appeared in her hands.

But the crowd collectively gasped when Rika did not remain completely motionless as the others had, but instead chose to rush towards the Black Tea Gentleman, the sound produced from her mouth sounding like a sort of curdled battle cry.

"Oh? What's this?"

The man grinned at her, blocking the deadly scythe with a single finger.

"I thought I explained it to you already. You can't attack the host." He spoke with a completely non-serious tone of voice.

"You could at least look at me when you taunt me, instead of keeping your eyes shut like that. It really pisses me off."

"Now now, Miss Frederica." He'd been calling her that ever since he found out it irritated her to no end. "Won't you calm down and save the murderous intent for the show?"

Without opening his eyes, he seemed to sneer at her.

"_Or would you rather I just kill them all in front of you right now?_" His tone of voice completely changed.

"Don't think for a second I'm doing this because I want to humor you and your 'audience,' _yokai_." She spoke with deep malice in her voice.

"I wouldn't dream of it." He smiled. Rika lowered the scythe and backed away, returning to the spotlight.

"I apologize for that small interruption. Now I have a special announcement to make. As this show has had a greater turnout than any show, I have decided to make this arena the most entertaining yet! I have decided to forgo the help of the witch of vanishing objects, Beatrice."

The audience gasped and cheered. During all of the past performances, the Black Tea Gentleman would send the contestants to separate dimensions making use of Beatrice's (or rather her recently acquired and distinctively more fitting name of Gaap) vortexes and have them battle there, while the audience watched by the means of something akin to a television screen. But forgoing her assistance meant that the contestants would be fighting on the platform before the audience.

"But without any further ado, let the games begin!"

The crowd continued to go wild, as if they had no shred of conscience or dignity. How else could they have found the emotional plight of these poor children so entertaining?

* * *

><p>"To start things off: two women, both in love with the same man. Perhaps their suppressed spite for each other stems from their conflicting feelings. But tonight, in this area, for the very first time- these two women will fight to the death for their right to advance towards their beloved wishes."<p>

The man waited for the cheers to die down so he could properly announce the match.

"Round One- Rena Ryuugu versus Mion Sonozaki!"

The previously motionless Mion and Rena stepped forward as the Black Tea Gentleman floated upward towards his seat above the area. Rika looked on in agony as the two prepared to fight. Rena brandished her cleaver, while Mion simply stood still with no weapon in her hands.

"The First Movement! Fight!" The man cried out. He would always start off any match with a random call-out.

Almost as if they'd been injected with the energy they'd been lacking entirely until just now, they both leapt into action. They did not speak a single word- they simply fought.

Rena ran at Mion with the full force of a swing with the cleaver- enough energy to shave her head off entirely. But Mion dodged the first swing and the second. Rena went for the third, but as she did Mion un-buckled the stun gun that she always carried with her. Upon firing it, Rena staggered slightly, letting out a sharp cry. Her grip loosened on the cleaver, and in that instant Mion managed to rip it out of her grasp. She took a single swing and managed to rip off Rena's left arm.

The audience gasped, some of them wincing, and some of them even cheering.

But in this game, you had to _die _before you were killed. If that made any sense to begin with. It added to the entertainment value, even if it were physically impossible. It didn't stop the pain one would feel from losing their arm, just the blood. If one's organs were completely inoperable and it was impossible for them to rise and fight, they would be allowed to die. Otherwise- you would just not bleed.

Rena wildly ran at Mion, managing to land a single punch on the Sonozaki sibling before forcing her to the ground. She continued to wail on her, pinning her right arm to the ground, making it impossible for her to wield the large cleaver properly. Rena, using a fragment of sharp bone sticking out of her arm, cut a long line down Mion's arm, rendering it useless. She managed to grab the cleaver and managed to spear Mion through the chest with it, pinning her to the ground.

The crowd went wild. They hadn't been expecting a move like that.

Rena stopped to breath for a second before letting out a high pitched scream. It was more like a howl than a scream, though. It appears she was still agonized by the murder of her friend, even though she was the one who dealt the final blow.

"Oh, it seems that Sonozaki-san is finished. But there's one rule I put in place for tonight that's a little different from usual…." The man grinned.

Mion suddenly came alive again, ripping the cleaver out of her chest and speared Rena in a similar way- except straight through the skull, crushing everything in between.

"…Only heart and head-shots count as a kill! Sonozaki-san is the victor!"

The crowd went wild once more as Rena fell over to the side. The half dead Mion rose to her feet and nearly stumbled back over. She didn't make a sound.

"Oh, but it seems that Sonozaki-san took a few fatal blows…Let's fix her up."

Rika couldn't help but wonder what he meant- but what he _did_ mean was far more atrocious than what she had expected.

He snapped his fingers, and in that instant Mion let out a curdled scream. In a matter of seconds, all of her skin had melted off of her body, leaving nothing but a floating mesh of bone. But a few moments later, her skin and organs began to reform themselves. Eventually Mion was completely reconstructed, with all of her wounds completely gone. Once the process was completely finished Mion puked on the ground in front of her. The audience laughed at the reaction. Rika growled at them. This was far too much.

A few seconds later she returned to her standing position from earlier, dragging the meat cleaver along with her. Rena's entire body seemed to melt away into nothing.

* * *

><p>"Now, onward with the second round! These two haven't been friends for too long, but they have become close enough that one could say they are siblings! These two, as close as they are, will both fight for their precious wish, no matter the cost!"<p>

"Round Two: Keichi Maebara versus Satoko Houjou!"

The two combatants stepped forward, but unlike Mion and Rena, these two spoke.

"…I'm sorry." That was what Keichi said. Satoko didn't make a single sound.

"Standby, Ready? Round Two, Fight!"

Normally one would think that Keichi would simply shoot Satoko and be done with the fight, but the handguns, while being loaded with a single round each, had a very limited range. They were limited to the exact distance that Keichi had once stood from the innocent girl that he'd attacked. The distance from the chamber to the 'cut off' point of the bullet was equal to this distance, and as such could not fire very far.

Satoko knew to keep her distance, and she did as such. She figured that getting behind him would be the best course of action at the time, and so she worked her way to the other end of the arena while Keichi tried to get close enough in to hit her. Keichi took several shots, most of which weren't even remotely close to the target. He wasn't a particularly good shot, but using something more accessible to him like a baseball bat was apparently not allowed at this stage of the game. He managed to pursue Satoko for long enough that she nearly slipped up, and the bullet that Keichi had fired at that moment was within range of her. It barely skimmed past her left ear, shaving of a negligible amount of hair off her head in the process. Satoko stumbled as far away as possible, but Keichi still had a few clear shots. He fired off three more, all of which missed her.

Eventually Satoko was capable of taking the lead again, and managed to leap out of Keichi's range with seemingly inhuman acrobatic ability. Aside from her ability to lay traps almost instantaneously, her movement was severely heightened, allowing her to move far more nimbly than her body would normally allow. She threw a single smoke bomb in his direction, blocking his line of sight entirely. Eventually the smoke cleared, but not before Satoko had knocked Keichi over, causing one of his handguns to fall from his grasp. The audience had been able to see the entire exchange and was already howling wildly.

Keichi managed to figure out where she was and tripped her over as she tried to flee. When he could get a clear shot she was just outside of his shot range. He took a single step forward- and into a cracked floor trap that Satoko had set up during the time the smoke screen had been up.

Keichi was stuck at the bottom of a large hole. There was no chance he could climb out.

"Ooh…It seems the fight's taken an interesting direction."

"…That's it, right?" Satoko suddenly shouted, her eyes still as wide as they had been the entire time. "He can't fight, so he loses, right?"

Rika suddenly realized what Satoko had done. She'd trapped Keichi in a hole so he would be unable to fight her- so she wouldn't have to kill him.

"Hm… I assume so. Very well, then Maebara-san loses due to inability to fight…"

As the Black Tea Gentleman said that, the crowd seemed disappointed- but that disappointment turned into excitement once more when large spikes rained from the ceiling, falling into the hole.

"…N-No…No! No!" Satoko started to shake uncontrollably. "My…Nee-nee….I…No…I…" She let out a curdled cry.

Something suddenly clicked. The gun that Keichi had dropped. She ran over to it.

"Oh?" The man seemed intrigued by the turn of events.

"Satoko- _DON'T!_" Rika cried.

Satoko grabbed the gun and in her shaky grasp pointed it directly between her eyes. She wasted no time in pulling the trigger. She fell over as blood poured from the wound.

"Oh ho ho!"

The audience was completely captivated by the scene before them- captivated in a bad way.

And as if the man had done so on purpose, Keichi emerged from the hole. The audience went crazy.

"So in the end it seems that Maebara-san is the victor!"

"…Satoko…" Keichi stared at Satoko's currently evaporating corpse. Clearly this hurt him as much as it hurt her. He returned to his place of his own free will, picking up the handgun from the floor where Satoko had dropped it.

* * *

><p>"Now, with round two out of the way, let us move right on to round three! The true successor to the name of Sonozaki and the last of the Furude family line- these two powers, which have clashed in combat time and time again, will now be shown before a live studio audience. Sonozaki, and her selfish love of the elder Houjou. Furude, and her selfless love of her friends. Which love will prove to be more powerful in this arena today?"<p>

Rika forced herself to step forward. It was far too late to back down now.

"You'll regret this." She told the man, who promptly ignored her.

"Round 3: Shion Sonozaki versus Rika Furude!"

Shion readied her katana. "It's nothing personal. But I'm not going to lose this battle."

"Nothing personal? What the hell are you talking about? You're the only one besides me who's doing this freely!"

"…I'm done talking. Either keep talking and die or fight me and end up dead anyway."

"…"

"Heaven or Hell! Fight!"

The moment the yokai snapped his fingers, Shion immediately dashed toward her at a lightning fast speed. Rika's heightened senses enabled her to block the impending slash with her scythe as she made a counter swing. If Shion were going to fight her without holding back, then neither would she.

Shion came at her again, this time with a straight jab. Rika blocked it with the wide blade of the scythe before swinging it in such a way that a large gust of wind was sent in Shion's direction. The wind was strong enough to leave cuts all over her body. But despite the fact that they probably hurt a ridiculous amount, she didn't even flinch. She ran straight at her again before leaping high into the air and landed on top of Rika, impaling her in the left shoulder with the blade.

"Crap, I missed." She growled.

Rika used her free hand to swing the seemingly weightless scythe, forcing Shion to pull the blade out of her shoulder and back away. Rika gripped her shoulder with her free hand, dropping the scythe to the ground. The audience gasped, confusion about throughout the entire crowd.

Shion looked at her with disbelief.

"Are you even trying anymore?" She rushed at her, taking the opening for what it was.

Or rather what it seemed to be.

Shion moved to drive the blade through Rika's heart. But as she did, Rika used her lower center of gravity and dived under her. It was a one-shot strategy, but it had worked. The blade missed entirely as a result and Shion stumbled forward and onto the scythe. Rika lifted the scythe and, while holding Shion in place with her foot, pressed her head into the sharp edge of the blade. She pulled the edge of the scythe along Shion's neck, severing her head. The crowd went crazy at the gruesome way Shion died.

But it wasn't the end. Rika pulled the scythe away when she believed she'd killed her. But Shion's head was still attached to her neck by what was left of her neck muscles. She couldn't move, but she was still alive. Normally she would have to be considered dead.

"I won't finish her." Rika stated.

"Very well…" The man snapped his fingers and the rain of spikes fell upon Shion.

"The victor is Miss Frederica!" He exclaimed. Rika glared up at him.

"You're next." She stated. The man grinned at her, his eyes as shut as ever. Rika stalked off to her spot next to Keichi and Mion, her scythe in tow as Shion melted away.

* * *

><p>"Now, as we only have three contestants remaining, I have decided that we shall pit two of the survivors against each other…And I have decided that the victor shall fight Miss Frederica in the final round!"<p>

The crowd apparently liked that idea.

"Now, with round four…Two friends, the best of friends, two people who fully understand each other. Two people who may even love each other. Two friends whose wishes practically coincide! But regardless of their wishes and dreams, they must fight each other here and now."

"Round Four: Mion Sonozaki versus Keichi Maebara!"

The two stepped forward.

"Don't worry, Mion. I'll make this quick." Keichi said, pointing his handguns in her direction. Mion's face, instead of being as stoic as it had been, seemed to be a bit more distraught. It seemed that she had yet to recover from the horrible experience of being reconstructed. She spat bile out on the floor as she readied the cleaver.

"Ah, but there is a new condition. As neither combatant has a reasonable size advantage over the other, ranged combat is not allowed. Therefore, Maebara-san must select a new weapon."

The handguns disappeared, but Keichi already knew what weapon he'd use. A baseball bat that seemed to be made out of incredibly durable steel appeared in his hands. The crowd bawled and laughed at him.

Mion's face, even if for a moment, seemed to show a pained expression. She readied the meat cleaver she'd taken from Rena and was ready to charge at him.

"Very well then…The Wheel of Fate is turning! Rebel 4, Action!"

Mion, with a burst of energy, lifted the cleaver over her head and ran straight at him. Keichi managed to sidestep the first slash and managed to deal a single blow to Mion's right arm. Mino backed off and ran at him from a different angle, trying to force his guard to break by having the cleaver collide with the bat at several different angles. But the bat was far too durable, and eventually Keichi had managed to take a single solid swing at Mion's head. She staggered back as he ran forward to push her to the ground. Keichi had realized that Mion hadn't really been fighting at all, and as such allowed her to stand.

"Come on. Don't you want your wish granted?"

Mion rose to her feet and swung once more. She managed to bring the cleaver towards Keichi in another swing despite her sluggish movement, but when Keichi brought the bat in front of him to block the swing, Mion suddenly dove at him, knocking him to the ground. At this point Keichi was struggling to break from her grasp, while Mion was trying to get a clean shot at Keichi's heart. She couldn't hold him in place for long, however, and Keichi managed to break free and brought the bat down on her head. As he tried to rise to his feet, Mion managed to stomach the pain from the blunt swing and forced him back to the ground and forced the bat out of his hand. She held the clever above him.

"Ah…Looks like I lose, as usual…I wonder what the penalty game should be."

Mion's grip on the cleaver was somewhat wavering. Rika could already tell what was about to happen.

Mion brought the cleaver down on Keichi.

And plunged it right into his shoulder.

"The penalty….Game….I know….You have to wear that nasty looking red thing for the rest of the day….Heh…..How embarrassing…"

"Mion…!"

"Sorry, Kei-chan….This old man needs to rest…."

Mion ripped the cleaver out of Keichi's shoulder and plunged it straight into her heart. It was almost instantaneous- she fell over, completely dead, and her body melted away right before Keichi's eyes.

"Mion!" He screamed.

"Oh my, yet another suicide! This is getting a bit old, don't you think?" The Black Tea Gentleman seemed to have realized that a repeat show wouldn't be as satisfying as one with more variety. He would have to do something about this for the final round.

The crowd had apparently grown tired of the suicide endings to the rounds. Perhaps people with strong feelings for each other weren't the best murderers?

"I suppose then the final round shall begin…But first, one final rule that will be instated for this last round. No suicide is allowed. You have to kill the other person to win. And if you refuse to fight by this new rule….Well then, no wish shall be granted to either side."

Keichi wordlessly returned to his position while Rika gazed at him sadly.

* * *

><p>"Now, my beloved audience, I give you the final round of tonight's performance! These two are the most distant of the pack of friends, yet they are the closest! While Frederica is simply a stranger to the young man, the poor miko carries all the memories and feelings she has made with him along her endless path! He may see her as a dear friend, but she sees him as something far greater! In this match, where one must kill the other, who will be able to stomach their feelings and deal the final blow?"<p>

Keichi and Rika had already taken their places. Keichi was apparently still using the baseball bat, but given how Rika was far more capable in combat it might have been more of a disadvantage. However, she did not have heightened senses and speed as Satoko had, so it might have been slightly fair.

"Round Five: Keichi Maebara versus Rika Furude-apologies, Miss Frederica!" Much to his disdain, Rika completely ignored him that time.

Rika's gaze was cast to the ground in front of her. She had almost been expecting an outcome like this. Perhaps if she kept her eyes shut she could bring herself to kill him. But she knew that despite the fact that she'd seen to Shion's death so thoroughly that Keichi was a completely different story. As much as she hated to admit it, the yokai was right. She had the mind of someone well beyond the years of any human being- she knew what she felt for Keichi was as real as he had made it out to be. That was why she couldn't do it. But she had to, there was no way out like there was for Mion.

But would Keichi have the same sort of hesitation? The thought that he in fact did not left a bad taste in her mouth.

"…Rika." Keichi spoke, causing her head to snap upward. He swung the bat and pointed it directly at her. "With this bat- with this power I have, I'll acknowledge your feelings." Had he understood her inner turmoil?

Rika stared at him blankly, before closing her eyes and grinning slightly.

"…Alright then, Keichi…Then with this scythe…"

She readied her blade for the impending battle.

"…I'll beat them into you!"

The yokai above them only grinned. Things were going just as planned, now that Rika was willing to fight to the death in the final battle. The crowd had seemed to have forgotten the lack luster performance the rest of the combatants had given and were now intensely focused on the scene before them.

"…I've run out of call outs! Just kill each other already!" The audience laughed, before falling silent as the battle began.

Rika took the first move, rushing at Keichi with a large amount of speed. She tried to ring the blade around him so she could simply pull and be done with it, however simplistic his death would be. But the incredibly durable bat managed to block the blade entirely and Keichi managed to land a strong blow to her stomach. Rika stumbled to the side as Keichi attempted to rush her, but Rika was already in the air at that point and decided it would be best to re-gauge Keichi's brute force. She determined the best way to go about attacking him would be with a full on strike from below his bat's horizontal range. That way he would be forced to make an imprecise vertical strike, which would give her enough of an opening to deal some damage.

Of course Keichi had been expecting something like that, and so he decided to completely step out of the way and prepare his vertical strike beforehand. Rika missed him only narrowly, however, and she managed to turn the tables on him with a swift yet completely blind slash to the side. Keichi had almost stopped paying attention at that moment, letting his guard down slightly. Rika managed to catch his arm, ripping it open before he could back away. Unfortunately for her, Keichi's stronger arm managed to crash right into the scythe, the brute force from which managed to completely knock it from her grasp. The audience gasped as Keichi leapt forward to deliver what he was hoping would be the final blow.

But Rika managed to dive under him, the same tactic she'd used on Shion.

It was unfortunate that Keichi had read her move perfectly, dropping down on top of her as she was sliding under him.

"That's about enough of that. You can't get someone with that trick if they've seen it already."

"Damn…I guess I lose, huh?"

Keichi brought the bat down on her skull, and with a sickening crack her head split open. The crowd cheered.

"…" The yokai above them was watching curiously.

It only took a matter of moments before Keichi realized that something was wrong. He tried to determine why Rika hadn't faded away even though her head was split open and she was certainly dead.

His gaze shifted to her left arm. A small trail of blood flowed across the floor from her wrist and the line she had made with the piece of floor tile along her arm.

"…Clever." Keichi grinned. Of course- suicide was not allowed. But she had killed herself before he had killed her. So technically, she was still alive.

"Interesting…It seems that Miss Frederica needs to be reconstructed." The yokai snapped his hands and Rika's body shook.

Keichi's eyes widened. He quickly dropped the bat at his side and embraced the Rika's shaking frame as she went through the exact same process that Mion went through. She managed to hold in the bile that her body desperately wanted to release as Keichi's grip became tighter. She suddenly started to breath heavily the process finished and she was hit with a wave of nausea.

"Keichi…Thanks, but…"

Rika gripped the shard of the floor tile she'd managed to relocate and stabbed him in the side with it.

"Don't forget we're still fighting."

"…I didn't." Keichi pointed out. It was then that Rika felt what appeared to be another shard of floor tile sink into her neck. Keichi released her, grabbing the nearby bat and brought it down on her in her state of confusion.

Rika was soundly beaten as the bat came crashing down on her head for the final time. He quickly forced the shard out of her lose hand so she could not repeat her same strategy from before. He reached for the discarded scythe and while Rika remained immobile he swung downwards with it- plunging it directly into Rika's heart.

"Ah…I lost…Does that mean that….Keichi really loves me?" Rika bitterly whispered as she quickly bled out.

"…That's right." Whether it was a lie or not, Keichi hoped that Rika had heard those words as her eyes lost their light and she quickly passed.

The crowd went wild as Rika remained completely motionless.

* * *

><p>"Ah, such a pity. I was hoping Miss Frederica would have won." The yokai feigned sympathy for the girl as he descended down upon the scene. Rika's body melted away in a matter of moments and the damaged arena seemed to repair itself.<p>

"Congratulations, Maebara-san. You've won, and so it's time your wish was granted." The yokai spoke in a completely more positive tone as he brought his hand to rest on Keichi's shoulder as the crowd continued to cheer.

"Really? So that's it?"

"Yes, it's over. You've won, and so your wish will at last be granted."

"…This is your idea of a game, huh?"

"Yes, you see, the entire tournament is held for the purpose of pleasing that large audience out there." The yokai waved his free hand in the direction of the crowd. "Right now they're calling you their champion for the evening. After all, you did manage to prove to this crowd exactly how strong you were, even though you only had to really kill one person. But the crowd is fickle- the fact that you won means that they've forgotten all of that, so you shall return home with not just your prize, but with glory!"

"Hm…Your game sounds a bit boring."

"Boring, you say?" The yokai looked at him somewhat peculiarly, although it was almost impossible to tell what expression he was making with his shut eyes. "Is the massacre of a large group of people that boring to you?"

"It gets old after awhile."

"Really…Then what game do you suppose would be suitable for a crowd like this then, Maebara-san?"

"…I've got one." Keichi spoke quietly as he raised the scythe he'd just acquired.

In a single motion he swiftly swung it in the yokai's direction. He was too slow on the swing, apparently, as the man slipped just out of the scythe's reach before it could make its mark. The audience gasped at the scene before them.

"Uninteresting adolescent teenager versus supernatural black tea faggot. How does that sound?" Keichi practically snarled at the yokai who did nothing but laugh at what he'd just said.

"Hm…Maybe it _would_ be a tad more interesting if I took part in the fight myself. However, I won't bring myself to fight a lowly human like _you._ You see, I am a higher class fighter myself."

"Really? Then why are you hanging around here doing the same shit over and over again? You make me sick- making us kill each other so you can make yourself a little more important. I knew how much Rika hated you, but I didn't think you were _this _much of an asshole, that'd you just go off and badmouth the dead."

"You wanna keep talking like that? Do you _want_ me to send you home in a casket?" The yokai was beginning to get irritated.

"I'd be better off than going off without my friends."

"Hm…It's an interesting proposition, I'll give you that. But I will not humor you, Maebara."

"Well why the hell not?" He hollered in response.

"It's like this. You see, Miss Frederica made me swear on my honor that in order for her to participate, that in the event that you won that I wouldn't lay a finger on you, no matter what you would do."

"What…?"

"As such, you must now be sent back home. I bid you adieu, Maebara-san." The yokai bowed before facing the audience.

"This concludes tonight's performance-"

"Oh hell no." Keichi turned to face the crowd himself. "I heard you guys don't like suicides? Then get a load of this!" Only a few moments later was Keichi dead on the floor, with the scythe he'd slashed himself with.

The yokai chuckled. "…However, she said nothing about what you would do to yourself." He turned once more to the crazed audience.

"This concludes tonight's performance, for real this time! I bid you all farewell, and I hope to see you again!"

In a flash of fireworks and a puff of smoke, the yokai disappeared completely.

And so there was no victor that evening. Only losers.

But perhaps some had lost more than others?

* * *

><p><em>Yokai's Daybreak Chapter Result:<em>

Ryuugu Rena –Her death went unnoticed by the masses for the most part, given she was the first to fall.  
>Sonozaki Shion- Her inhuman strength was her downfall. Such was the desire of the masses, after all.<br>Sonozaki Mion- Her death, while uninteresting to the masses, held special meaning for her beloved opponent.  
>Maebara Keichi- His death was an outcry- an outcry against the very masses that made him famous.<br>Houjou Satoko- She died out of fear- fear of killing the shadow of her brother.  
>Furude Rika- Perhaps the most meaningful death of them all, a death that symbolized love.<br>The Black Tea Gentleman- Off to spend time, perhaps to ascend to the highest level a yokai can achieve.  
><strong>The Unreliable Narrator<strong> (Faceless)- Remains unsure what part of this story is considered reliable.

* * *

><p>Now that we're nearing the third main chapter, I would like to propose something to my readers, of which there appear to be three (although it appears I may have lost one of you, oh well), along with x amount of anonymous readers.<p>

I am deciding whether or not to try something a bit different for the third main chapter. It's essentially this: shall I continue to write the first person perspective as I have been, or shall I transpose it into something akin to a series of journal entries (for this chapter only)? As there are only three of you at the moment, I doubt a poll will be necessary. Anyhow, leave your answer in a review or something.

Moving right along, I'd also like to point out some things related to the story overall. We've gone a little bit past halfway point of the question arc-like portion of the story. The last main chapter will not have any side stories after it (as the contents of that chapter, as I have planned out, will give a good enough reason as to why), but without getting too far ahead of myself I'll just say that once we reach that point there will (probably) be another issue that will need resolving. Anyhow, I'll leave you at that. Also, pretty much any comments are welcome at this stage of the game. Thanks in advance.


	13. Looking Forward Chapter

_**Author's Note**_

*decides to read some Fanfiction*  
>*goes into the Higurashi section*<br>*checks out the stories under the M filter*  
>*sees this story sitting at the bottom of the page*<p>

"…Eh, might as well post a new chapter."

All sarcasm aside, I am now back, and planning to update this story a bit more regularly. In truth, I ended up waiting out that problem that I mentioned would arise at some point later on, but now that the full English patch for Twilight of the Golden Witch is out it won't be an issue anymore (So if you've read it you'll likely have an idea of what's coming up).

Anyway, without any further delay, here, have another chapter of this.

* * *

><p><strong>Looking Forward Chapter <strong>

_The tale presented for you this evening (as we now approach the twilight of this tale) is not one of murder or mystery, or even the village of Hinamizawa. This tale is a tale of the afterword- an afterword where the survivors of the incident escape their bloody past and attempt to live on in the outside world. But the grim reaper that is fate is not so easily overcome, and as it is well known the whims of fate need a miracle to overturn. Will such a miracle occur in this sad fragment? It's needless to say that such an ending won't be so probable. Probably. But do not by any means deny the validity of this tale, for it is perhaps the most important of them all._

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (Perspective character gets the bold):  
><em>Sonozaki Mion  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Furude Rika  
><strong>The Unreliable Narrator<strong> (Faceless)

* * *

><p>Sunlight broke through the window blinds of the small and nearly broken down apartment. It wasn't even really an apartment by any sense of the word. It was more like an unused hotel room that wasn't ever even fully finished. The bathroom was functional but that was about as close to a conventional room as this place got. The ceiling was painted blue, but the walls and the floor were grey and lifeless, as was the metal beds, covered flimsy mattresses and a single layer of sheets. Asking for a pillow was apparently too much. But considering how they'd essentially broken into this room they really had no right to complain.<p>

The three of them in a group that once numbered six- the three who made it up and away from the stairway to hell.

The sunlight reached her closed eyelids, which promptly fluttered from the light. They opened slightly and the girl in question turned over to avoid the irritation of the light. But realizing that she was now awake, she found herself unable to go back to sleep. After all, they'd be leaving this place relatively momentarily.

She found herself mulling over what had happened again, regardless of how many times she stopped herself from doing that. She glanced over at the far wall to focus her attention on something else, but all that was on the plain wall to greet her was the old calendar they had pulled out of a trash can in the last town they visited.

She realized that her endless June had finally come to an end. But at what cost? One that was far too high. Far too high.

Thursday, the first of July. The first day of the ninety-five degree temperature that would stick around until the start of September. The first day of hot mornings and even hotter afternoons. But, more importantly and less generically, the first day of the rest of Rika Furude's tragic life. The month of June came to its bloody conclusion and in the end fate could never be truly trumped by the poor child. But no matter how many hundreds of years she had to spend she was willing to fight for the perfect world where she and her friends would be able to live in that place in peace- for a world where the cicadas would sing not a song of senseless slaughter, but a song of harmony and lasting tranquility. The chances of it happening were so close to zero that without a miracle it wouldn't have been at all possible. But she believed. She believed that the miracle she wished for would one day come.

There had to be a miracle.

There was supposed to be a miracle.

But there wasn't a miracle. And deep down, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself otherwise, she knew there would never be one.

Perhaps she'd been abandoned by the Witch of Miracles. Or perhaps there was never a Witch of Miracles to begin with.

In the end, upon her beloved friend Hanyuu's death and upon the loss of her ability to send Rika further back into the past, she was forced to make a decision- to either die with the village she spent countless years trying to save much like a captain with his ship- or simply flee. Flee the village, flee the madness, but most importantly run from her fate with everything she had.

It was like a game of predator and prey. If you were too weak to beat them- run away so they can't catch you. Rika and her close friends functioned as the prey for this scenario of theirs, while that vile woman and her small army were the predators.

She knew the ramifications of leaving the village. They would all likely come down with the syndrome before too long since the fragile Rena would be with them, but Rika had to take the chance. It was do or die, more literally than she would've liked.

It was a simple plan- they would act as if Rika had been killed already to throw off Takano and, instead of secluding Rika to her home like they had in the past they would simply use the state of confusion to leave the village entirely. Takano would ultimately get what she wanted and Rika would be able to go free. The village and all of its residents would be wiped out as a result of the purging but in the end many would end up being sacrificed for the sake of the few who would survive with the vital knowledge of who had destroyed the village.

Rika wasn't sure why at the time she didn't expect Takano to catch on to that aspect of the idea and send Yamainu after them on their way out.

They left the village as planned, with a single bag that Keichi carried that was filled only with basic items and roughly 60,000 yen they'd managed to pool together from various sources. About ninety percent of it was indeed stolen, but in the end there was little they could do to gather a substantial amount of money to pay off their essentially expenses. They started out with the whole group, and by the time they managed to lose the Yamainu only Rika, Keichi, and Mion were alive. Shion was the first to go simply because she was able to hold them off the longest. Rena ended up lagging behind and was shot, but not before taking out one of their pursuers. Satoko, simply due to fatigue, ended up dying in a similar fashion to Rena. It was a miracle in itself that any of them managed to escape that terrible place.

Perhaps, Rika had once thought, that she might have spent the miracle the wrong way. But now she didn't really think of her survival as much of a miracle anymore. After all, they were still being hunted by the Yamainu. They were the only three who knew, and in the end that would spell death for them.

All Rika knew- or cared to know- was that she was alive now and she might not be alive as early as the next ten minutes from now.

Rika turned over again, disregarding the sunlight. She peered across the room to where Keichi slept on the floor. Mion was nowhere in sight, likely because she was out probably sorting out where they would hide out next. In the end no matter where they went they would probably have to leave as early as the next morning, as they were likely going to do with this place.

She silently rose, slipping off of the bed and onto the metal floor. She walked over to Keichi shortly before kneeling down to wake him up.

"Keichi-kun…" She whispered into his ear. When his eyes fluttered open she gave her most elegant fake smile and patted him on the head. "It's time to wake up."

Keichi didn't respond with words. His eyes still half closed, he sat up and sighed. "Where's Mion?" His voice was vacant of most expression.

"I'm not sure. She was gone when I woke up. She'll be back soon, I'd expect." Rika tried to sound more like her usual cheerful self. She didn't necessarily succeed. More and more often she found herself using her darkened and century-hardened voice, which lacked any real emotion but sadness. It was the voice she'd given to the witch- the witch that didn't even exist.

Keichi sighed again. "They'll be here within the next day. We really need to get going." He yawned, but even afterward he didn't seem to sharpen in the slightest.

Rika was about to reply when all of a sudden the door to the room burst open. Rika already knew that Mion wouldn't do something like that so recklessly and she had a decent idea who would. Her eyes fell. She would have to watch this again.

Two men clad in that ever so familiar public service uniform filed into the room.

Keichi didn't seem at all interested in their arrival. But as one of them attempted to speak he found himself unable to do so- due to the bloodied bullet that was now lodged in his throat. As he fell over, his friend glanced to his side, having not even seen what had just happened. As he did, the side of his head that he'd turned to Keichi was suddenly hit with something similar.

Keichi sighed, holding the fuming handgun firmly in place. He'd done this so many times there wasn't any hesitation or delay in his actions. He waited for any additional men to come through the door and when he was safely able to determine that none were present he lowered it before falling backward onto the floor.

"Seems like we can't stay here anymore."

"It would seem so." Rika's voice died in her throat, but she'd managed to squeeze that out.

Keichi rose to his feet and walked over to the two men.

"Keichi-kun, don't do this again, you really don't-"

"There can't be anything that they can trace us with. We made this mistake once before, and we've just made it again. They're not getting lucky a third time."

With that, Keichi bent down over the Yamainu operative with the bullet in his throat. This one was easy to pull out because of where it had lodged. Keichi only needed to pick around it with his knife a few times before he was able to extract it. The other bullet, however, was lodged in the man's skull. Rika turned herself away- not because of the gruesomeness of the act, but instead because it was Keichi that was doing it. The somewhat non-violent Keichi, who once many cycles ago condemned actions that were petty compared to what he was doing now. She knew it was only a matter of time before he turned into her- before he became just as lifeless and defeated.

A voice broke the sounds of Keichi digging through the man's skull.

"Geez, Kei-chan. Doing something like that in front of a lady- you don't have any decency, do you?" Mion stood in the doorway, a somewhat sad smile on her face. Mion had changed the least out of the three over this period of time. Her expressions still carried some sort of hope in them, despite all she had gone through. But Rika knew that, just like Keichi, she would at some point become like she was- lifeless and defeated.

Keichi turned towards her but didn't give off any sort of pleasure in seeing her.

"You're in a good mood today."

"What makes you think that?"

Rika already knew where this conversation was going to go. Keichi was going to say something that would anger Mion and the two would end up bickering again. It wasn't the married couple sort of bickering either.

"Look, can't we just skip the argument this time?" She spoke almost unintentionally harmfully. The two did not respond, nor did they continue their discussion.

Keichi eventually broke the silence. "Do we know if they sent any more of them?"

"Not likely." Mion spoke softly. "There weren't any signs of any other vans besides the one they parked outside."

"How much fuel does it have? Did you check?"

"I figured the two of you were more important at the time. It could probably take us a good ways before we have to trash it."

"Alright then. Rika, we'll go check out the van. Can you gather up everything we're taking?"

She nodded silently. Without any further exchange the two left the room, leaving her to herself. She turned away from the door and began to wander around the room, searching for anything of value that they could bring with them. In the process she went through the pockets of the two Yamainu operatives to see if anything they had would be worth anything. In total she found about 10,000 yen on them. It was quite a bit, but in the end it might only have lasted them a few more weeks. The 60,000 yen they started out with had mostly gone to paying people to keep quiet and restocking on food supplies, a quantity that fell through rather quickly. The money had practically vanished after the first two weeks they'd had it for, but as time went on they managed to come up with better ways to conserve and spend it, although some of their methods were more extreme than others. At this point Keichi had volunteered to starve himself if need be. Luckily, the need for that hadn't arrived. But it wasn't like Keichi would ever protest in slightest in the event that the time did come. Even if Mion did.

Things had been this way between those two for quite some time. In the aftermath of everything that had happened Mion and Keichi grew ever the more distant. The two of them were more or less split up, as far as describing their relationship could go. Back in the village Rika had almost been able to confirm that the two of them were involved by she never had any definitive proof. But now, whatever had been there was long gone.

Keichi had the worst of it, although he would never admit it to anyone, most of all himself. During their escape he'd found himself stabbing another person to death after watching Rena die right before his eyes. He'd shot most of the men who ended up being unfortunate enough to find them, with Mion occasionally stepping in to do things herself. Her current irritation with Keichi mostly came out of concern for his wellbeing and anger from how readily he puts himself in a position that in most cases would get him killed. Certainly, as time went on, his low level case of the syndrome had risen to higher levels. Certainly Mion knew. Rika was sure that Keichi himself knew which was like the reason why he seemed to have lost what little life he had left in him.

Mion herself was probably somewhere between mentally unstable and heartbroken herself. Not only had she lost her entire family and roughly ninety percent of the people she had known her entire life to the destruction of the village, but even now someone who she potentially had feelings for has lost their will to live. Certainly, it must have driven her mad, if the Hinamizawa Syndrome she easily could've had at this point hadn't already done that.

Rika herself was just lost. She wasn't sure if she was really outrunning her fate. She wasn't even sure if running had any rhyme or reason to it in the first place. She just knew that was all she could do, and she would flee as far away as she could in order to do so.

Rika pulled the shabby calendar off of the wall and shoved it into the bag with everything else. In the end all she grabbed were the sheets, the calendar, and whatever the men had on them. Their small food supply was left in the bag for storage, although most of it would turn rancid by the time morning came. She dumped the perishable food items on to the floor, leaving only the single sealed bottle of wine she'd taken from her house along with a few packs of instant ramen and a bag of snacks inside. The last time they'd purchased anything more they found themselves running up too much money. Their supply wasn't all that renewable and on a daily basis they would buy a tad too much food early on. Sure, the men they'd end up killing would have a bit on them, but the 10,000 yen Rika had just found was roughly ten times the normal amount they carried.

She headed outside where her two companions were searching through the ever so familiar white van.

"Here's everything." Rika said plainly, handing the bag and the money to Mion.

"Ten thousand, eh? You'd think they'd stop bringing their wallets by now." Mion attempted to make a joke out of the money they'd pulled.

"We're lucky they haven't." Keichi spoke up from inside the van. "Who knows where we'd be right now."

"That's true. Hell, we might be able to stop for gas this time."

"As much as I'd want to, I wouldn't try it."

"Eh, you're no fun, Kei-chan." Mion was waiting for a typical Keichi response but received no response whatsoever.

Rika sighed before opening one of the doors to the van. She sat in the back as she normally would and leaned back against the seat.

"I'm going to sleep. Wake me up if you need anything."

"Fine." Keichi dully replied.

Rika shut her eyes and attempted to doze off, but considering how she'd just woken up to a rather one-sided gunfight she had to settle for resting her eyes. She sighed with more frustration than anything else.

At this moment, as she had let herself reflect on everything for a decent while earlier. She finally started to think.

Was living like this worth it? Was running from fate worth it if this was how she would have to spend the rest of her life? Or could they somehow manage to get away from everything altogether? Would the Yamainu ever give up? Would someone ever call them off? Or would they have to wait until the day Takano died to bring things to an end? Would any of it bring about any good if they wasted away until that time came?

Would dying be any worse, really?

Rika shook her head. Thinking like that was simply futile. But trying to make the best of things wasn't any less futile.

Tomorrow the same thing that happened today could occur. The next day could bring about the same thing. Even if they were alive for the moment, there was no indication that they would be alive at this same time tomorrow, or the day after that. The days even further ahead were even more mysterious in this regard.

Rika didn't know how long she could keep going like this. But what made things even worse was the fact that Keichi and Mion would likely break long before she did.

Rika already accepted the fact that she couldn't think ahead. There was no tomorrow when today would lead to the same events as tomorrow. All she could do was hope that when she opened her eyes that the three of them would still be alive and that their yesterday remained proof that they still existed and that they were still fighting.

She could only look forward, which was the same thing as looking backward.

By some miracle, Rika felt herself falling into slumber. She had the sleep she had wanted.

Ah, another miracle she had wasted.

Oh, how satirical her poor existence was.

But it was an existence that she could no longer trade for another one. Her fragment voyaging had come to an end. This was her finale- this was her Hinamizawa Prime.

* * *

><p><em>Time passes. There is no rest. There is no tomorrow. There is only yesterday. And only the cicadas know.<em>

The sun broke over the horizon, obscured by the buildings of the city. Today came for the residents of Akihabara, while yesterday came for those damned by the past. It was sometime during the fall, well after the end of the endless June. But this new world they existed in was just as endless.

It was only Rika and Keichi this morning. Mion had vanished the night before and had yet to return. They assumed she was dead and were forced to take residence out on the streets, with their only source of transportation gone with her.

As for what this morning was, even though it already happened, Rika had stopped caring for the day of the month. She'd almost considered destroying the calendar altogether, but for the sake of maintaining the group's sanity she kept it.

The silence was unending. Keichi made no attempt to speak to her and she made no attempt to speak to him. Rika simply sat there in the somewhat mediocre warmth of the jacket she'd found. Keichi's own blue jacket was found in a similar fashion.

The silence eventually became to irritating. Rika had to say something. But the first thing that came to mind she immediately regretted asking. But it was within some line of reasoning. After all, Keichi seemed completely indifferent to the likelihood that Mion was dead.

"Keichi…" Rika spoke somewhat hesitantly. She was simply speaking to him for the sake of speaking to him. "Do you love Mion?"

Keichi didn't answer immediately. "I think your question should be _did_ I love Mion."

"Whichever works."

"I certainly did."

"Is that all there is to it?"

Keichi's face fell further. "Not necessarily. In all honesty I just want you to know it's not a happy story."

"I wouldn't expect it to be a happy story."

"…I suppose that since she's gone now, there's no point in hiding it. I'm sure you would've found out eventually anyway." Keichi paused before beginning what became more or less the final breaking point for Rika's sanity. "I know everything."

"What do you mean, _everything_?"

"Everything about that village. About you. And most certainly about the curse of Oyashiro."

"About…What?" Rika wasn't quite understanding him correctly, but just from the way he'd said 'everything' she had a feeling about exactly what he was getting at.

"I know the curse is a virus. I know Takano's the one who killed everyone. I know you're some time traveler, that Oyashiro is some alien loli and I know that this was your last chance at a happy ending." Keichi's revelation was more satirical than anything else.

Rika expressed sheer surprise for quite possibly the first time in the span of time that her memory amounted to.

"And since you know all of that…" Rika lost her voice.

"I know what happened in every Hinamizawa before this one. Including the ones where I killed pretty much everyone."

"But when did your memories return to you?"

"They didn't 'return' like they've done at random points in the past. Even when they did all they managed to prove was that it was another wasted world. No- I placed myself here. I'm just waiting things out until the end before I'll move on again."

"Placed yourself…? Then you're…"

"You didn't think you were the only one wandering a place that huge, did you?"

It all came to her. The reason why he hadn't visibly started to display any signs of the syndrome over the last few months as Mion had. The reason why he was proficient with a weapon even though he'd never used one prior. The reason why he lacked the same amount of life in his eyes that she did.

She found herself crying. Lightly, but still crying.

"If we have to start going by our technical names now that I've told you, you can just keep calling me Keichi. My other name is pretty stupid, if I do say so myself. I won't stop calling you Rika either, since it's clear to me that there isn't a witch of miracles anywhere around here."

Although Rika knew what he said was true, she was still hurt by his words.

"Point is-I know all of Mion's dark secrets, including the ones she's still trying to hide."

"_All _of her secrets…?"

"All of them."

"Even _that_…?" Rika was hoping that his answer would be no. But she knew that something like that wasn't possible.

"Yes. Even that one she died trying to protect that one time."

Rika was almost speechless. She didn't know of a Hinamizawa where Keichi found out about _that_. She was almost certain that the only people who knew about _that _were Shion, Oryou, and herself.

"But Keichi- you have to know that it's not her fault! She didn't choose to-"

"You don't have to explain to me. I already know the whole story. That isn't even the reason why."

"Then why? Tell me, why have you been forsaking her this whole time? You have to know how much pain she's in-"

"It's simple, really. Because I know that no matter what I do here nothing will change. Mion is as good as dead, no matter how many times I could try to love her. It's as simple as that- I simply shouldn't. It'll just make us both all the more miserable. I'm sure she'd understand that to some degree if she knew."

"But that's not-"

"Besides. How could I bring myself to love someone I've killed more times than I can count?"

Rika's defiance more or less came to a halt. She wordlessly stood up and walked over to him. Even though she was much smaller than he was, she managed to wrap her frame around him. At this point she started shaking and her tears fell all the more readily.

Keichi did not react in the slightest. He simply leaned further back and sighed as he always would.

"Love me then." She spoke.

"What do you mean?"

"I'm waiting things out the same way, but when it's over I'm not going on any further. You can do whatever you want to me as I am now. That way, maybe if just a little bit, you can become Keichi again."

"…"

"I don't want to see you like this. You're too much like me…There's no way I could ever let someone else end up like me, there's just no way."

"You know I can't do that."

"Why not?" She nearly screamed at him.

"I'm not that big a fan of NTR. That's why."

Rika was forced to catch her breath. Of course- he still loved Mion, but he simply couldn't bring himself to love her, given the way he was now.

"…I'm sorry."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Rika let go of the collar of his jacket and slipped into his lap. She simply sat there wordlessly.

Keichi's words made her realize. Everything she'd done up until now was futile. In the end she would never continue onward- she would expire in this world while Keichi continued onward. But in the end neither of them could defeat fate without a miracle.

Without the witch of miracles- without Bernkastel, it was impossible. And they both knew that.

Rika more or less cried herself to sleep, while Keichi never really dosed off.

At some point, hours later, a white van appeared in the entrance to the alleyway. Keichi, without waking Rika, readied his handgun. Instead of his usual public service uniformed targets, Mion appeared from the door.

"About time you came back."

"Sorry. I had some shopping to do." Mion gave her usual smile despite the fact she was talking to Keichi, noticing that Rika was fast asleep on top of him.

"What kind of shopping? I said I'd get you something for the holidays."

"It's a surprise. You'll find out in the morning."

"I can hardly wait." Keichi gave some sort of a sad smile.

Mion sat next to him and, determining that the time was right, lightly grasped his hand.

"It won't be much longer. I know it."

"Believe me. You don't know a damn thing."

Mion looked at him somewhat dubiously.

"And trust me- it's better that way." Keichi looked away from her. Mion knew that any further inquiry wouldn't yield any results.

She released his hand and turned the other way.

* * *

><p><em>Time passes. The trees die and are reborn. The morning is dark. Yesterday is now a shadow of today. There is still no tomorrow that is not today. There are no cicadas. And so no one knows. <em>

An abandoned carnival. A sort of place that was once purposed to generally bring happiness to people of all ages in a state of distortion. It was a perfect place to hide, but also a perfect place to be found.

Rika rested in one of the compartments of the large and somewhat operable Ferris wheel. She was relatively out of sight and nearly fifty feet in the air, while Keichi and Mion stood on either side of the large contraption fifty feet below her. The bloodied corpses of at least ten Yamainu operatives littered the ground around them. Keichi stood with a sub machine gun within his grasp, while Mion stood defiantly with nothing but a katana. It was almost a comical scenario of bringing a sword to a gunfight, but in the end the glow of crimson that was scattered across the silver blade didn't seem to mind.

Rika could only pray for their success. For this was their chance- this was their only hope. This was their chance at redemption. For the frontlines of the Yamainu were here- and their leader as well.

Another one appeared from the left. He was gunned down in a matter of moments. Another appeared from behind a trash can and leapt towards Keichi. Mion sliced off his head midair. Another tried to use the opening to shoot Mion down, but found a round from the sub machine gun lodged in his skull.

"I hope you know I'm not cleaning out all the corpses this time." Keichi spoke.

"I didn't think you would." Mion responded almost wryly.

Another appeared, and another was shot down. Three more appeared all at the same time and one found their left arm suddenly missing while the other two were halted by the penetration of iron in their stomachs.

Another tried to sneak up on Keichi from behind, but the amateur job he did at concealing himself was a dead giveaway. He tried to jump at him but landed a foot or so away when Keichi effortlessly side-stepped him. He pointed the gun at him.

"B-But how…?" The frightened man nearly squealed.

"Know this. There is no possibility for your survival. You were fated to die here and now."

"I-It's not possible! There's no way that all these men…And just the two of you…!"

"Indeed, it is impossible. Perhaps possibility isn't even involved."

"Wh-What are you saying?"

Keichi did not respond with any further words. He simply pulled the trigger and the man knew no more.

"Kei-chan, we've got to get moving. Surely we can't keep getting this lucky."

Keichi shook his head. "If we back down now there won't be any chance at this again. Don't you want tomorrow to finally come?"

Before Mion could give a proper response another bullet went flying past her head. She turned to find at least four Yamainu shooting at her from behind cover. Keichi managed to hit the first two from where he was standing but the other two were out of his range. As one of the men attempted to reload, he turned his back to the scene in front of him, knowing that he could easily tell if the one with the sword made any movement. But the moment he turned around he was met with the crimson glow of Mion's blade. He knew no more as the blade skidded across his throat. In a matter of moments, the other man, who didn't even realize he had been flanked until he noticed that his target had vanished met a similar fate.

Another figure emerged from the white van in the distance, this time with two at its side. Keichi was about to fire but, noticing the figure was clad in black as opposed to white he purposely aimed for the two at its side. The two men dropped dead while the third figure kept walking forward, seemingly unnerved by her two companions dropping dead.

Mion did much the same thing. For she realized that this person was Miyo Takano. She was carrying a small handgun, but in this instance she would never be able to use it as Keichi already had the sub machine gun trained to her head.

"This is the end of the line, I suppose." She spoke somewhat solemnly. At this point, having realized that the fighting had stopped, Rika emerged from behind them, with the ride having finally come to a complete halt.

"Why didn't you just run away? You could've made it out alive if you'd done that." Keichi spoke coldly.

"You don't know, do you?"

Neither of the two knew how to respond to her.

Takano began to shake for some reason. "You know…You three gave me much more trouble than you were worth…I wasted everything I had to ensure that you'd never tell the truth. I've run out of men who are willing to serve me, but it's not like I even needed the ones I brought with me today."

"You were…Planning to die?"

"There's no reason for a god with no disciples to live for very long."

At this point, Rika, who had been silent walked up to the woman and squarely kicked her in the stomach. She staggered back onto the ground and Rika continued to walk towards her. The woman did not put up any resilience in the slightest.

"Who the hell gives you the right to say that, after all the crap you've pulled?"

Takano did not respond.

"You killed so many people, and if you were planning on backing out like this then what the hell was it all for?"

"…It's funny. I don't even remember anymore, to be honest."

Rika responded by forcing the woman to the ground. She then grabbed for the katana that rested in the still rather dazed Mion's hands and forced it straight through the woman's stomach. Takano writhed in pain.

"So you mean to tell me…" Rika whispered in a low voice, "That I sat through years of your slaughter for _nothing_?"

Takano did not respond- partially because she couldn't understand and partially because she was in too much pain to answer. Rika continued to put pressure on the blade. Her anger pouring out of her at ridiculous rates.

But Takano, the coward she was, could not take the pain. She shifted the handgun in her hands. Mion, noticing this slight movement quickly pulled Rika out of the way.

But Takano simply angled it towards her own head and pulled the trigger.

Just like that, it was finished. Just like that, tomorrow could come for those three who were forced to live in the past.

"…It's over, isn't it?" Rika whispered. She collapsed to the side out of exhaustion. She wasn't entirely unconscious, she simply wished to stop moving.

"…That's right, Rika. It's over." Mion's own voice was barely a whisper as well.

If their suffering were truly over, then why were there no smiles? Why was their no laughter? Why did the atmosphere not even change in the slightest?

Was it perhaps the future they'd attained was never worth fighting for? Or perhaps it was because now that everything was over there was nowhere for them to go?

Had Rika finally managed to outrun fate? Or had this been her fate all along?

She didn't know. She didn't care. All she knew was that Takano was dead and they wouldn't be pursued anymore.

"It's still a miracle…We're all still here, aren't we?" She whispered. "Even if it's not a big one…It's still a miracle."

Keichi had something to say. But he almost didn't want to say it.

In the end, the words managed to form. "I wouldn't call it a miracle. After all, there's no witch of miracles around here."

Rika didn't understand, nor did she care for what Keichi was saying. If it wasn't a miracle, then how were they all still alive after that gunfight?

"…Kei-chan…Should we do this now?"

Keichi nodded. Keichi slowly pointed the gun in his hand at her.

Rika didn't even turn. She already had an idea of what was going to happen. She didn't know why, but she didn't really care. All she knew was that she escaped Takano and that she was free. She didn't care for what that freedom meant or what the end result would be. All she knew was that she was free.

"It's impossible for all of us to survive here. Especially with such limited firearms. There's no way that one of us didn't die here."

Mion smiled sadly. "I guess bringing a sword to a gunfight isn't such a good idea after all."

Keichi tried to look through Mion and not directly at her. He didn't know if he would be able to pull the trigger otherwise.

But even despite that, he still hesitated to continue.

"Kei-chan." Mion looked at him with a dead a stare as she could.

"…?"

"I hate you. I hate everything about you. Even now you're such a damn coward. You gave up so early on. You just wanted to die that whole time but you were just too scared to end things yourself. You lost hope so early on, and no matter how hard I struggled to keep Rika-chan going strong you never did a damn thing, did you? I'm surprised we survived this long, given just how damn weak you are. You can even do this, can you? It's not like you even care about me anymore. You shouldn't have any trouble pulling a damn trigger."

"…"

"Well? Are you going to just stand there and prove my point? Or are you going to actually make yourself worth something?"

"…Mion."

"What?"

"That sort of trick would only work on the old Keichi."

"What're you talking about?" Mion's angry tone of voice had already started to wither.

"If you were really that mad at me, you wouldn't have called me 'Kei-chan'."

Mion could only sigh.

"…I suppose it was worth a shot."

"You're right, though."

"…Hm?"

"I am a coward. I am the lowest form of scum. I did lose my hope a long time ago. I can't do the smallest thing, even when my friends are sacrificing so much more than I would be. I'm a selfish bastard and the worst kind of selfish bastard at that. And you're right. I can't bring myself to do this, even though there's no other way out."

Mion sighed. "…I guess I'll have to try again."

Mion stepped forward, placing her hands on the weapon and her lips against Keichi's. She parted them from his after a few moments passed.

"…Think about it this way. I have nothing left. If I don't die now then I'll just keep going on without anywhere to really go. No matter what I still can't have a future. My family is dead, and I have nothing to go back to. Even if I try to live as a different person I'll still stand out. There are plenty of people who hate my family and there's no way I can atone for their crimes in their place. But think, Kei-chan. You and Rika, you two can certainly keep going. You don't have the weight of such a wicked family as mine on your shoulders. And I know the two of you can keep going, even without me."

Keichi did not respond.

"…Please, Kei-chan. I can't keep going like this. That's why I'm supposed to die here…Please."

"…And I thought I was supposed to be the magician of words."

Mion shut her eyes and smiled.

Neither spoke at all. They simply stood there. It was as if everything they needed to express at that moment did not require words.

Eventually Keichi broke the silence.

"…Illusion to Illusion. This is the truth of the events that have unfolded. With seemingly just enough ammunition to get by, Keichi Maebara manages to lay waste to the majority of the Yamainu operatives. Miyo Takano then approaches him and Rika Furude stabs her into submission. Takano then takes the coward's way out and the battle comes to a close…However…"

Mion steadied her breath as Keichi slowly pushed the gun towards her chest.

"…During the period of live fire, Mion Sonozaki is killed by a stray bullet."

Keichi pulled the trigger.

"The stray bullet was fired from Keichi Maebara's sub machine gun. Mion Sonozaki is therefore killed by Keichi Maebara. This is how shooting you like this is possible. For as long as Mion Sonozaki dies, this miracle is permitted to occur."

Rika did not observe any part of the exchange. All she knew was that Mion was dead and that her miracle wasn't all that much of a miracle after all. She just remained sprawled out on the ground, waiting for sleep to overtake her. She didn't know what expression Keichi wore, nor what he was feeling in this situation even though this was just one Mion out of many. She wondered if at some point he'd forgotten that he wasn't really a human anymore and had just assumed the role of Keichi that prior to now he'd been playing with as much dismay as she had been playing her own role.

No matter what reasoning or logic went behind any of it, Rika chose not to dwell on it, but instead to wait for her precious sleep to overtake her again. She didn't want anything else to do with whatever twisted rules she had been forced to play by. She just wanted her peace.

Because in the end that peace was all she had.

* * *

><p><em>Time passes. The seagulls cry. Today is no longer yesterday. There is at last a tomorrow. But there is still no hope. And only the cicadas remember.<em>

July 5th, 1998. Fifteen years had gone by. Fifteen years after the Hinamizawa Disaster, an incident that had essentially become nothing more than a far off memory. There were none who remembered the disaster, nor the names that accompanied it. Sonozaki, Houjou, Kimiyoshi, Furude- all of these names faded into the darkness, replaced with the more lavish name of Ushiromiya and the similar tragic nature of those who carried that name. But the survivors of Hinamizawa didn't bat an eyelash. After all, the two who had survived were allowed to live in the future instead of in the past.

**** ******, now a person by the name of Haruna, lived as a common housewife. She had moved to Hokkaido years earlier to escape the influence of the Yamainu permanently. Their connections likely didn't extend any further than Honshu, and given how their commander was dead they would likely have no incentive to pursue them off the island. In the present time, **** likely wouldn't be able to recall what the word 'Yamainu' even signified. Her first child had been born just earlier this year, with her husband being the primary worker in the family. Her husband never asked much of her, nor did he ever force anything upon her. He allowed her to live however she chose to, and so she chose to live for the sake of being there whenever her husband returned from work. She chose such a lifestyle because she believed that it was one that she deserved and was fitting for the life she wished to live with her growing family.

Her husband was primarily an office worker, working for a small corporate business. Given how successful he was, even though he wasn't even making that large an amount of money, clearly he was a complete genius, in every sense of the word.

After all, not all that many people make it to the point on the salary chain that he had in their entire lives. Let alone become that successful with a fake identity.

He was somewhat well known within his business. He'd made out well for himself. But the best part of it all was that he didn't even exist.

****** now went by the name of Wright, although the average person he became friendly with would just settle for calling him "Rai," since the full name was an awkward western word. He'd physically changed his appearance to a certain degree so that he would not be even remotely recognizable as ****** ******* and, through several close calls and several well made connections managed to establish and maintain a false identity for himself. He put it to the test first and foremost as a member of law enforcement for the first five years before retiring to work up the corporate ladder. His success was certainly a miracle in itself.

But unlike in the past, ****-or rather Haruna- now cherished every single one of these small miracles. Because she had all but forgotten her past life and what miracles had once meant for her.

July 5th this year fell on a weekend. In other words, Wright was not working today and he was free to spend the day with Haruna.

They could walk about freely now. After all, they weren't **** and ****** anymore. They were Haruna and Wright, and they were entirely different people.

The two of them decided to go to a park. Taking their recently born child outside with them so soon after being moved into the house was not that good an idea, so Wright had their dear friend and caretaker Runon look after her while they were out.

The park was relatively close by, so the two did not have to walk all that far. The entire time they simply talked about things.

"I heard you bought another sponsor the other day." Haruna's small talk was almost always related to Wright's job. She never really had much to talk about herself, since she spent most of her time at home or talking with Kotobuki, their next door neighbor, over the phone.

"Ah, right. Yeah, that one hurt a bit. It's still a bit unnerving- seeing some guy completely change their opinion of you after you dangle a few bills in front of their faces."

"But shouldn't you be used to that by now?"

"I guess I should. But I'm not. Nothing much I can do about it."

Haruna stopped walking and turned to look at him. "Look at it this way. At least you can put his resources to something good, right?"

"…I guess so." As he had agreed with her, Haruna smiled softly at him and returned to his side.

"Have you talked to Kotobuki-san recently?"

"Earlier today, actually. That woman's amazing. She's only eighteen and she's already trying to write her own book."

"Hm…I thought you had to go to college for that sort of thing."

"That girl has raw talent, I just know it!" Haruna spoke fondly of one of her few friends. "She's been telling me about some of her ideas- they're all great, especially for children. Oh, did I mention she's writing children's stories?"

"…That woman doesn't strike me as the type to write kids stories."

Haruna whacked him on the arm. "Hey, don't judge her like that. They were really good ideas, I swear!"

"…Eh, whatever you say."

Haruna sighed. "You know, maybe I should start writing a book."

"About what exactly?"

"Maybe I can write a children's book- Ooh! Or maybe I could write Kotobuki-chan's story with her!" Haruna's visible excitement made Wright grin slightly.

"Eh, you can do whatever you want."

"Why aren't you encouraging me?"

"Because I don't need to. You can do whatever you want. You don't need me to encourage you until you _need_ me to encourage you."

As usual, he had said something rather archaic that didn't make much sense to her. But she never minded that. She'd even gotten used to it over the years.

They continued walking down the winding pathway, with Haruna randomly interjecting like she always did and Wright giving a smug response like he tended to. Eventually, Haruna tired of walking and decided to sit on a bench in the shade of a tree. Wright sat down next to her, somewhat exhausted.

"You know, you really need to stop jumping around like a little kid."

"Why? Isn't it fun?"

"It is I guess, but save it for the real kid, you know?"

"I'm just getting you prepared." She said with a bright smile on her face.

Wright sighed before leaning back. The two sat in silence for a bit before something caught Haruna's eye. An ice cream vendor was stationed some distance away.

"Oh, the ice cream vendor is open. I'll go get us some, okay?"

Wright just nodded in response. Haruna quickly kissed him and stood to leave. She didn't notice, but Wright smiled at her as she wandered off.

"Hm…I never expected her to turn out this way, that's for sure…I don't mind in the least though…"

Wright's own history wasn't one that he was particularly proud of. To get to where he was he had to go through a large number of people and on many occasions had to break his own self imposed rules. In the end, though, Haruna had been there to help him through all of it. He was certainly blessed to have a wife like her waiting for him whenever he returned from a day working in what he usually referred to as hell.

Certainly. Having her was the best thing that had happened to him. Ever since they had met years and years ago.

Come to think of it, how did they meet again?

He found himself pondering this. It was as if she had always been there.

He continued to sit there, unmoving. He occasionally glanced in the direction Haruna had run in and wondered when she would get back. It was taking an awfully long time for her to just buy ice cream.

When exactly did they meet? It was probably fifteen years ago. But what were they doing fifteen years ago that brought them together?

Haruna probably was arguing with the vendor about what flavor she wanted or what size it was. She always seemed to do that whenever she bought ice cream of all things. When they bought their cat Diana, however, she'd decided almost instantly. She was odd like that. But it was all just fun and games in the end.

Yes…Fifteen years ago. There was that carnival. And…There was another place, where he lived around that time…Where was that?

Wright would always scold her in the event that she got someone angry. In the years prior, this was all the more common. But like a father would treat his daughter, he would forgive her relatively quickly. Of course she would always just be yanking his chain. After all, they were lovers, not parent and child.

That place…The place where something horrifying happened. That place…Where the sound of…bugs filled the air…

Wright doubtlessly loved Haruna. There was no debating that. Even if he had a less direct way of showing it, he certainly did.

That place…That village…Where the cicadas cried.

Wright loved Haruna.

But _he_ didn't love _her._

No. That boy didn't love that girl.

Wright loved Haruna.

****** didn't love ****.

"…Ah, this looks familiar."

Across from where he was sitting, one of the bushes rustled. Some sort of animal was likely inside.

But he knew better.

"Yeah…I've definitely seen this one before."

_That's right. I was here with…Her…What was her name again? Ah, right…That girl with the green hair. I remember now. Yeah, there was one time just like this… I've seen this all before. I was here with her…With…Mion. _

"…It seems I've forgotten. This wasn't ever the end result. This is just another fragment in a whole damn sea of them."

He turned his face skyward.

"…Look, I know you're there. In the bush across from me. Let's get this over with. I don't have all day."

In the end, he remembered everything. The illusion he'd created for himself had finally unraveled.

"…That's right. After all, I only had five rounds in that machine gun. You can't kill a small army off of five rounds. I'll say it for you….Illusion to illusion. This is the truth of the events that transpired fifteen years ago. Maebara Keichi dies. Sonozaki Mion dies. Rika Furude escapes with her life. Miyo Takano commits suicide. That's all there is to it."

The shadow from within the bushes moved-

And when **** ****** returned to the bench with the ice cream in hand-

It all came alive.

She could hear them. She'd just muted them for so long so she couldn't remember what they were or what they sounded like.

She could hear the cries of the cicadas.

And then she knew. Or more appropriately she remembered.

"…We can't escape it. We never could, could we?"

Indeed. For there was no way they could outrun fate.

She had just been playing her role. Certainly, this was her fate.

This was just the fate that her final fragment had dealt her.

* * *

><p><em>Looking Forward Chapter Result:<br>_Rika Furude – Died in 1983, but revived on July 5th 1998.  
>Keichi Maebara- Died in 1983.<br>Mion Sonozaki- Shot with one of the five rounds.  
>The Unreliable Narrator- Noticed that he forgot to mention what Mion's secret was but is too lazy to rectify his error.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Author's Note<em>

And thus concludes another chapter in this medium-length story. This one is a bit lengthy compared to the other side stories this time around, so take in as much information as you can from it. There's loads of stuff hidden in here. And I mean loads.

Anyhow, in my absence waiting for the translation to be released I've been tinkering with Chapter 3 and the solution chapters. Chapter 4 is pretty much completely outlined as well. But reading over what I have of it right now, "solving" chapter 3 can be done in as few as one short story. Therefore, I will only be writing one final side story before the final main story chapter, Chapter 4. From there, the last four chapters (the answer arc chapters) will follow, each preceded by a solution to the side stories that went with the original main chapter.

Also, another bit of an issue, although not that much of a time consuming one. Chapter 3 isn't done. Not even close. The basic story structure is down but it's being a pain to write. I attempted to take the journal route but I found it strayed too far from my normal writing for these first person segments and didn't work out as well as I hoped it would. So it'll be a few extra days before I can get that released.

Anyway, I hope that those of you enjoying various breaks for the holidays keep enjoying yourselves. I'll get back to you all once Chapter 3 is finished.


	14. Bio Study Observation 09

**_Author's_ Note  
><strong>Alright, so two weeks later I finally have a postable version of Chapter 3. This chapter is a bit light in the mystery section, hence why there's only going to be one side story packed to the brim with details. This chapter won't really have all that much underlying information hidden all over the place like the first main chapter does. I'm saving it all for the next one. The mystery in this chapter will present itself pretty much instantly, and the remainder of the chapter won't really build on it at much. The side story will make it possible to solve absolutely anything and everything new in this chapter that doesn't have to do with the main chapters. Additionally, Chapter 4 will get a side story of some sort- it's going to be like one of the wrap parties from the Higurashi VN. There will be one additional one of these "wrap parties" at the very end of the story, after all of the answer arcs are released. Anyhow, let's get this one out of the way first.

Also, these little report sections are going to get shorter and shorter. The reason why will present itself once we get to the Answer arcs.

* * *

><p><strong>Bio-Study-Observation 09 : Subject ACER-0138234691<strong>

Every time I write one of these I finally get to reflect on all of the crazy things that have gone on around this case. I really can't understand why the things that have gone on have happened and I can't understand why the people involved seem so damn crazy. As far as I care, it's the end of the world as I know it. And I'm broke- in more ways than one. Everything is finally coming to that fulfilling climax- although it really isn't fulfilling in the slightest. I've seen things- terrible things. Things that most men would cower in fear at the mere mention of them. I've seen people collapse under pressure. I've seen people gouge their own eyes out. I've seen people kill each other time and time again. I've seen some serious shit. But I've never quite seen something like this. This tale that's unfolded- it's something both amazing and terrible at the same time.

As time goes on everyone's condition worsens. Mido is still losing his mind, but at least he knows he's losing his mind. At the very least he's still redeemable, but I just hope that he has a daughter to greet him when he wakes up. But given how at this point the authorities are officially searching for a corpse I doubt that will be possible. I wonder if the man has anything to go back to after this, but I shouldn't be so cynical.

Aria is a far worse case. Her syndrome has gone pretty much all the way. I'm certain that at this point there's nothing that neither I, nor anyone else can do to save her. She'll likely die solely from the severe mental trauma. We can just hope that she doesn't get free and try to cut up everyone in the hospital. Or even worse a combination of both. Aria can't even recognize me anymore. Knowing that, I feel like there's little hope for _anyone, _really_. _That includes myself.

No matter how often we're exposed to him, the remaining staff members- of which there are two, by the way- can't seem to catch the syndrome from End Dreamer. It's spreading like wild fire, though. It seems the public has been made aware as well. Who decided that was a smart idea should be shot dead- letting the public know can only increase the spread.

At this point I know that End Dreamer's dreams are key to the whole situation, but I just can't figure out how or, more importantly, _why_. All I know is that he has the answers to everything we need to know to make this a serial murder investigation. And once it's an investigation we get to go to the village in question and wrap things up. But getting those answers seems more and more hopeless every day. In the end I just hope he can do it. Being a doctor first and foremost, I want to be able to save these people. But it might be too late by the time I know how to do it.

End Dreamer still is ever oblivious of the whole situation. I'm certain he's not involved with the spread. In fact, I'm beginning to wonder if he's involved at all. In the end I'm beginning to believe he's just a bystander- just a viewer to this crazy spectacle. His dreams are certainly what we're after, but like I've said his dreams get pretty hazy, but I doubt that any of them are any less important than any of the others. Although the last one he had- the one about the youkai and the battle royal- that one was crazy as all shit. I'm pretty sure Saika drugged him into having that one. In the end I suppose that everything he's dreamt up to this point has been our viewfinder into the incident as a whole. How he can dream about real events I'm not sure. How he can even dream about the fake ones is just as mysterious. But in the end I won't dismiss the importance of it all.

As much as I really want to. And believe me, I _really _want to.

I can write even more, but there really isn't a point. For my upper staff, who probably just skimmed through this to the bottom given how lazy you all are, here's a "too-long-didn't-read" for you.

Everyone's dying. I'm going crazy.  
>End Dreamer isn't involved but he is the key. His dreams are weird as shit.<br>I want more money. Give me a raise.  
>The End. Now go smoke your Cuban cigars, you rich bastards.<p>

**Report End**

**Please turn to page 25**


	15. III: Hollow Forest Chapter

**Hollow Forest Chapter**

_The tale you are about to bear witness to is not one of a group of friends, their struggles with an incident they may or may not be involved in, or their personal struggles as they come to terms with who they are or who they want to be. No, this tale is one of a completely different sort. This late installment of the user-defined truth is a tale not of many, but one single individual and their harsh struggle to survive- and their struggle to come to terms with not who they are and who they want to be, but rather who they were in the first place. Indeed, this tale sets itself up for something a tad different from what you're used to. I hope you don't mind too much._

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_**Pivotal Characters (perspective gets the bold)  
><strong>_**Saya **(Age: Undefined; Hair: Long, Black)

_The Situation is as Follows:  
><em>About a month has passed after the previous incident. Having discovered that more people had gone missing within the woods surrounding Hinamizawa, the police task forces found themselves trying to enter the village. However, none who entered ever came out, and it was determined that after a period of time that they had all been killed. What was happening in the village remained a secret, as none could enter the village without being killed. Now, after waking from a deep slumber with no memory of who she is, a solitary girl named Saya must struggle to survive the dark and unknown forces of the village and its surroundings.

* * *

><p>I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I can't introduce myself to you, no matter how much I'd like to. If I could I would in a heartbeat. But I can't- simply because there's no one I know how to introduce. There's no one here- just me, a person who has no clue who they are and can't understand what they are and why they are what they are. All I can do is tell you my story. That's all I can do for you. I'm so sorry.<p>

I wake in a cold sweat, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. It was simply the most frightening feeling in the world. Had I perhaps been dreaming? Was I trapped in a nightmare for that time? Yes, it was certainly a dream, I know it. But what was it about? I would never know, neither on that morning or any other, why I had woken in a cold sweat.

All I knew was that I knew nothing. I had no idea where I was- or _who_ I was, for that matter. All I knew was that I was trapped in some terrible dream until just this moment- for how long I couldn't say. In the end whether or not it was a nightmare or something more was completely irrelevant.

But the place that I was faced with when I woke- my surrounding area- I would have taken the nightmare over what I saw any day.

A dark room, filled with nothing but skeletal remains. Some were still adorned with small amounts of rotting flesh and most of them were still swarming with flies. I could assume that the decay was rather recent, although the fact that I am here and am still alive could be the reason why the flies have swarmed this place.

But as I mull over this seemingly insignificant detail it all suddenly hits me- what I was actually seeing before my eyes. I suppose it was just the effects of my prolonged state of sleep. I scream as loud as I can, simply from finally registering the reality of the situation.

I then began to see things with more detail, and each one causes me to shiver all the more rapidly.

The remains- they were all corpses. They were corpses that littered nearly the entire floor. The corpses themselves are mostly skeletal at this point but several of them are still rotting away, ripped opened and mauled as if they had been chewed apart by a wolf. I try to ignore the more miniscule skeletal remains, telling myself that they were just from small people, perhaps midgets. I try to focus on something else in the room- anything else.

I can now make out dried blood on the walls and ceiling, while the floor was adorned with what could have been the remnants of someone's intestines. Whoever had done this- why would they have done such a thing? Who on earth would do this to another human being- let alone so many?

I suddenly break down. Some of the blood and the intestines seem fresh. The people who had done this were probably close by. What if they returned to kill me? What if I ended up the same as they had? I frantically scan the room for some way to escape. I see something that appears to be an impression in the wall, different from all the other surfaces.

Of course- I know what that is, it's a door. I can open it and escape! My paranoia slips away for even just a moment as I realize I can break free through the door. I stumble to my feet, only to find that the bottom of my left foot was cut. I almost stumble right back over and into some of the blood on the floor, but I manage to fix my balance in time. I focus my eyesight in the direction of the door as the scent of blood fills my nose and my vision begins to swim.

_Ah, blood…So much blood, there's way too much why is there so much blood why is there all this blood why why why why why-_

Apparently I'm not very tolerant of blood, which would make this situation that much more difficult. I slowly move towards the door, which now seems so much further away, as the sound of splashing blood beneath my feet causes me to flinch at every moment. After what seems like an eternity of crossing the disgusting and rotting room I eventually manage to rest my left hand on its knob. My heightened state of fear relaxes as I turn the knob. Finally, I could get out of this room- but it wasn't like I had any idea where the door would take me. I could easily just be in one of many rooms in some demented butchery.

I opened the door and, somewhat fortunately, was hit with a wave of cool air from the darkened outdoors. Wherever this place was, it was certainly in the middle of nowhere or more realistically the darkest corner of the entire world. The wind that met my face seemed to howl much like a wolf. A low demonic rumble could be heard from what seemed to be far off in the distance. It only took a few seconds of exposure to this place for me to verify just how eerie this place was. It was as if I was walking out of Purgatory and right into Hell itself.

It was sometime late in the evening, which made escaping both that much easier in the sense that I wouldn't be seen but that much harder in the sense that _I _couldn't see. My eyes would fixate to the darkness eventually, but in the meantime I had to stumble around in the darkness. I tripped very early on over what I believe to be a large yet rather slimy log and landed flat on my face into what was most likely some sort of mud. I manage to rise again and I continue blindly into the distance, only occupied with getting as far away from that place as I could. But the further I go the louder the rumble becomes, until the point where I manage to land in some small pool of what I assumed would be water, as there was a large concentration of it in the area. I decide to stop here, figuring I was far enough away at this point. I prayed that I wouldn't be found in the time it took me to figure out where I was going. As my brain slows down I can actually think about things as they were. I grip my head, which was throbbing in pain. I feel the cold liquid that I had fallen into earlier. I wondered if it was even dirt at all.

Time passes. I'm not sure how much time, but time passes. It felt only like minutes to me, given how the entire time my mind was racing with questions, as I finally found time to fully digest the situation. It was a wonder how I could even think straight- my memory was practically blank of all personal information, but I could still firmly recall everything else that made me a human being.

I could remember various things, from what nationality I was to what language I could speak. I also had full muscle memory of how to speak and how to walk and run. I could recognize trees as trees, water as water, and somewhat more unfortunately blood as blood. I knew what things were and what things did- all I didn't know was who I was, why I was, and how I knew the things I knew. Given that, I was able to formulate quite a few questions to try to answer.

_Who am I? What am I doing here? Why can't I remember anything? Why was I sleeping in a place like that? Did someone bring me here? Was I kidnapped? Why would someone want to do this to me?_

But one single question rung out louder than any of the others.

_Why am I alone? _

I couldn't understand anything. And I would never be able to, so long as I was alone like this. At some point, even though I'd tried too hard to fight it off, sleep once again claimed me. I was too mentally exhausted to stay conscious. I dozed off, and by the time I snapped my eyes back open, having realized I'd fallen asleep, it was now what appeared to be morning. Time had leaped so far ahead in a matter of seconds. It was all so disorienting.

I could see my surroundings a lot more clearly, as well as the pool of relatively dirtied water next to me. I suddenly realize that I could finally figure out what my own face looked like. I hadn't seen myself for what I believed to be a very long time, so my own face was relatively foreign to me. I had very dark brown or black hair, and my eyes were a very bright shade of yellow. I wasn't sure why, but they appeared very unnatural. It was as if my eyes were glowing, like the moon- that large orb that hung in the sky, even now. It wasn't a very pleasant sight. It was rather creepy, although I didn't really register this at the time. After all, I had far more important things to think about.

But what stood out- I was splashed with blood. That puddle of mud I fell into was most likely blood. My great fear from blood suddenly kicked in and I quickly cleaned off the blood in the dirtied water, which now wasn't even remotely drinkable. It wasn't a particularly smart move, but I'd rather not go completely insane if I were trying to survive in a very unsanitary and outright dangerous environment.

Once I clean myself of the blood I find myself getting dizzy. It's as if my physical condition is so weak that every five seconds something else starts to malfunction. I stumble over, the smell of blood now lingering all around me. It took me a few seconds to regain control of myself, but at this point I'm, so accustomed to the smell of blood I can trick myself into thinking that there was in fact no blood nearby, but rather just the lingering smell. I take several deep breaths in order to calm down so I can think things through clearly. It was now day, so the chance of people being around was still relatively high. Of course now that I could see where I was, I could try to escape from this terrible place. I got up and started to move, walking completely around the pool of bloody water. I continue to head onward, hoping I was heading in the direction that would lead me to other people- other people who weren't responsible for trapping me in that room.

The cicadas continued to wail throughout the day as I continued to trek further into the seemingly endless woods. I found the sound incredibly irritating. At this point I'd managed to tune out their sound, but I knew that it wouldn't work for too long. Eventually that noise would drive me insane, I could almost guarantee it. But one thing I knew, from the sound of the cicadas, that wherever I was heading the sound was growing louder. But whether or not it was leading me to my ultimate goal or deeper into dangerous territory I didn't know.

The day continued on as I stumble through the forest. I managed to walk straight into a tree and tripped over several vines, further damaging my once clean legs, but aside from the occasional stumble past that I didn't have too much trouble navigating the forest. But as time went on I wondered just how large this forest was and exactly where I was in relation to the forest's edge. I tried to put it out of my mind for the time being, but I knew for certain that, much like the sound of the cicadas, I wouldn't be able to hold back for long.

I ended up resting on an extended tree root. The trees in this area range from large to small, making it look more like a jungle than a forest. The fact that there was such a huge amount of plant life seemed to suggest this to, but in the end I still hadn't seen any real life forms aside from the occasional insect and the sound that confirmed the existence of the cicadas in the distance. I had to make sure that when I resumed walking that I would be heading in the right direction, and I could use the cicadas' cries as a compass of sorts.

Suddenly, fatigue hits me. I had apparently reached the limits of my frail body, which I didn't even know was particularly frail until a few moments ago. It seemed that the period of time that I had slept during wasn't a particularly long one. I sit in a small crevice in the tree's roots, likely made overtime by the extending of the tree. I decide I would stop here for now. I should be relatively well hidden in this spot, so in the event someone was still searching for me I could get away with relative ease.

I felt myself dozing off, much like before. But as I was about to fall into the clutches of sleep I heard something that snapped me awake instantly.

The wind had been howling the entire time, but the sound I had just heard- it was too authentic to just be the wind. It was a legitimate howl- the howl of a wolf. I freeze up entirely as I hear sounds of feet crushing leaves. It was in the middle of the summer, but leaves from the previous fall were still abundant in the area, which made moving around silently rather impossible. This was the singular advantage I had in a situation like this. My spot in the crevice is relatively sealed off and well hidden so I hope that the wolf will pass me over. But of course I don't take into account the heightened sense of the wolf. I was too petrified with fear to think straight anyhow.

But the fear doesn't really sink in until the wolf appears from beyond the edges of my vision. It only takes a few seconds for me to nearly lose it and scream, but I cover my mouth as tightly as I possibly can. I just kept praying that it wouldn't notice me.

The wolf itself was incredibly feral looking. Its mouth seemed to have been foaming, so it likely had some sort of disease. Its eyes could have been blood red or covered in blood. Its grey fur was extremely unkempt, although the fact that it was stained with red blood-blood that probably didn't belong to the wolf- stood out much more.

All it took was a single sniff of the area around it for the wolf to turn around. Our eyes met, and it howled once again. In a matter of seconds, the wolf had moved from roughly twenty feet away to about four inches from my face.

I tried to back as far into the crevice as I possibly could as the wolf tried to lunge at me through the small opening that it couldn't fit through. Its huge fangs graze my left eyebrow once, causing me to flinch in fear. I couldn't even bring myself to scream at this point, but I continued my scrambling motion. Eventually I realize that it would only be a matter of time before it would be able to claw its way to me.

In my panicked state, my left hand managed to cut itself on something. I flinch backward in the pain from the object, but at that moment something finally clicked and I tried to feel for whatever it was. It was a long and sharp object that seemed to be wedged into this spot. Could this be my way out…? I realized that I could use this to stab the wolf. I try to pull on it, but it was still stuck, likely wedged in the roots. I kept trying, pulling on it with all the power I could muster. Eventually it did come loose, and not a moment too soon.

I turn back towards the wolf, swiftly thrusting the sharp object forward. When it hit the light I see that it was some sort of a knife, most likely left there by someone in the event anyone else would try to rest in a wolf nesting area. The knife manages to land between the wolf's eyes, and the beast suddenly halts all movement. It whimpered as the blade made contact and continued to thrash about. It still could not reach me, and I knew it was a matter of time before it bled out. It didn't take too long before slumped over into the crevice, falling on top of my legs.

I swear- it was all some sort of miracle. How I was lucky enough to find a _knife _of all things inside a tree crevice I'll never know.

Eventually I register that the wolf died and I manage to push it out of the crevice, pulling the knife out in the process. It was rather heavy, and I almost thought I wouldn't be able to move it. I slipped out of the crevice as the wolf rolled off to the side. I knew I wouldn't be able to stay here any longer, so I had to put the traumatizing situation behind me in order to press on. The sun was still up, and I was still able to see where I was going. I still had at least four or so hours before the sun would set completely. As I decided to press onward, I was stopped dead in my tracks at a strange sound.

Was it- a crunching noise?

I turn around to find something potentially even more gruesome than that wolf all on its own before me.

Ah, that's right. Wolves travel in packs.

Four wolves had taken the place of the one that had attacked me, and one of them was currently feasting on its dead pack mate.

Eventually all four wolves were focused on me.

I froze on the spot with fear.

At this point, the only thought that ran through my head was _run_.

I take off into the distance. The sounds of crunching leaves trailing behind me implied that the wolves were already following me. I knew how futile this whole situation was despite my panicked state. Even one wolf was enough to hunt me down- I couldn't move fast enough to outrun a wild animal, let alone feral beasts that were all just as deadly as the wolf I killed before. I still had the knife, but I was rather uncertain as to what good it would do against four wolves that would be able to overpower me incredibly easily. Chances were that I wouldn't get lucky enough to potentially kill all four of them.

I continue off into the forest, as the gash on my foot continues to inhibit my movement. I wonder exactly why the wolves haven't caught up to me at this point, but I don't take the situation for granted. Eventually, one of the wolves cuts in front of me, as I find myself coming to a complete halt. It starts to run towards me as I prepare for the inevitable result- my death.

The wolf almost reaches me as I realize that the other three were still nowhere to be seen. Without them there, I could most likely face off against this wolf uninterrupted. Regardless of my weak body, I could probably still face off one on one with this wolf, even if the knife was incredibly short and his jaws might end up latching onto my arm anyway. I didn't have much of a chance in this situation.

But in a matter of seconds I find myself, in a sort of a leap of faith, hurling the knife forward. My chances of survival dropped from about ten percent to about two percent. But despite those odds, I manage to bypass the ninety eight percent as the knife lands squarely in the beast's heart as it leaps towards me. I try to run out of the way and the wolf lands a few feet away from me. I hear the howls of the other three and, after quickly ripping the knife out of the wolf without even checking if it was dead, I continue to run onward.

But at this point the wolves choose to feast on their fallen brother. I manage to flee, eventually finding myself in another part of the forest where the wolves likely wouldn't be able to find me. I slump to the ground, realizing this. I land on a tree and choose to simply stay there, without even bothering to try and hide myself. Everything rushes to me and I nearly throw up from the stench of blood that now fills my nose. I toss my weapon to the side and don't move any more past that. I sit there, petrified with fear, still unable to register the fact that I was able to narrowly avoid death in such a way. I don't even register the possibility of other wolves in this area. I can only dwell on the fact that I'm still alive.

My vision swims as my consciousness fades. But my mind is still alive with the same questions from before- questions that I still had no answer to.

_Why- why am I here? Why would someone bring me here? What did I do?_

_What kind of person was I do deserve this?_

_Who am I to begin with?_

_Why isn't there anyone else?_

_Why am I the only one?_

* * *

><p>I eventually regain consciousness. It is some time at night. I normally shouldn't be moving around at this time of day but I assume that I should be able to move a bit more slowly due to my injury without much issue, given how only nocturnal animals would be able to come upon me. I doubted that the wolves from earlier would be so eager to hunt at night, although for all I knew they could've had nocturnal vision. I didn't know anything much about wolves- or at least I didn't remember, since I could easily recall that they traveled in packs. I crept along the trees, continuing towards a destination that I wasn't even sure of. I continued to move along as my eyes fixed to the darkness. But eventually I found myself stumbling over branches and vines every other minute or so. The fact that the gash on my foot had probably already manage to fester at this point didn't make things any easier.<p>

But eventually, as I continued onward even further, I found myself fall over for seemingly no reason. But as I rose to keep moving I felt something holding me down. I hadn't been able to notice what had just happened until after I had collapsed and my brain slowed down to register the situation. I wasn't sure how it was possible, since I'd just been running as fast as I could until just this second. My eyes widen as my vision swims and my entire body shakes. My brain had probably forced itself not to recognize my condition earlier in order to survive the wolf attack.

My left leg- the one with the sliced foot- was completely marred and ripped open. I could clearly see the remnants of muscle tissue and the blood that sat in the leaves around it. I went into a state of shock in a matter of seconds. I could see the blood this time- my previous method of tricking myself wasn't going to work out this time.

I knew that the smell of blood would lure any animals straight towards me, so I had to force myself to move onward. My body and my brain were fighting against each other. My body needed to move, while my brain needed to stop and shut down.

I manage to drag myself away from where the majority of the blood had pooled, but I didn't get far enough. I needed to stop the bleeding as quickly as I could, but even afterward it would still be far too difficult to move effectively. I force myself up against a tree. Realizing that sealing the wound shut was far more impossible than it needed to be, I had to think of ways to patch it up before my brain shut down. If it did, I realized that I wouldn't wake up in all likelihood.

I come to the best conclusion- I'm wearing clothes. I can use those as a bandage of some sort.

I rip the lower section of the sundress I'm wearing off. I quickly tie it around my leg, praying the entire time that it'll be sufficient to stop the bleeding. When it does, I sigh with relief. I manage to calm down, even if only slightly, and my mind seems to slow down a bit. I try not to think about getting away from here, since the fact that I'm still alive- at least for the moment- is more important.

I lean back against the tree, this time much more relaxed. My leg still hurts like crazy, but at least I'm not at risk of overloading anymore. I reach for the knife I had previously discarded and upon finding that I relax a bit. At least if something tries to attack me I have this to defend myself. As I lean back I focus on the sound of the cicadas. That sound still rung out, even now. Something tells me that it isn't normal for cicadas to be out at night…Regardless; at least it's better than having nothing to listen to.

But as I sit there and listen, I hear something else. I hear the sound of what I believe to be running water. I try to stand, as finding a source of water would essentially be priority number two at the moment. I find it a little easier to walk now that the wound isn't as exposed, and I head further into the woods towards that sound that sounds like water.

_Ah, finally…Clean water…Fresh water…I'll be fine after I just find myself some water…!_

I knew I was just fooling myself- even if I did have a source of freshwater, my problems certainly wouldn't be solved. But if fooling myself could keep myself alive for even just a while longer I wouldn't think twice about it. I continue into the woods with the sound of the water getting louder and louder as I proceed further in. But once I reach the edge of the woods and that source of water, I'm treated to a very strange sight.

The water itself was clean looking. But riding the current of the water was what appeared to be large, bloodied masses of white fabric. I take a closer look to find that the items in question are shirts, bed sheets, dresses, and entire bed mattresses. In other words- all cotton products, drifting down the river towards what appeared to be a large mountainous area in the background. Who had done this?

_And why did they have to be covered in blood?  
><em>

I still feel a tad bit dizzy. I'm not even anywhere near the blood this time. At this point I'm angry with myself more than anything else. After all, why is it that my lack of tolerance for blood had to be the only remnant of identity that I had? Yelling at my brain to keep moving, I manage to stomach the psychological fear and continue. As long as I didn't get close, it would all work out.

I proceed further up the river, following the bank to a point where the bloodied cotton masses weren't so close by. But the further I went up the river the more there seemed to be- except now the objects weren't limited to cotton products anymore. Wooden beams, plastic toys, chairs, tables, even- all sorts of material drifted down the river- all covered in blood, no less.

I have no idea who could have done this. I don't even care at the moment. I just want to get as far away from this bloody mess as possible.

I continue up the river, hoping for a gap in the bloodied material. But the further I go the less apparent it is that at some point I'm going to follow this mess to the source- in other words, the person insane enough to do this in the first place.

The further I go the more nauseous I get. I'm still not tolerant of blood in the least, even though I was just forced through more blood than most people would see in their entire lives. Regardless, I continue forward, hoping that the trail of blood would dissipate eventually. But at some point, as my eyes are fixated on the river, I miss the large fixture underneath me that I trip on. It was probably a log or an extension of a tree.

But once I stand up and turn around to look at it- the fixture turns out to be a dead body.

It isn't horribly bloody. I think that I can manage it, so I approach it. Even when my brain starts yelling at me to stop I smack it across its metaphorical face and continue. It was very likely that the blood covering the floating objects came from this body, as a large gash in its back would seem to suggest so. Mustering all of my courage, I peer into the hollow in the back-

-to find that all of this person's organs that I could see, along with their spine and more or less anything that their stomach would hold, seemingly completely gone.

I back away instantly, only to find myself drawing closer and closer to it. It was the closest thing to a live human that I had seen in quite awhile, after all. Even though I knew someone had killed this person, I couldn't help but question as to _why _someone had killed this person. Perhaps it was the same killer who had placed me inside that bloody shack. I simply wanted to know whatever about this situation the body could tell me.

And maybe give me some idea as to who I am.

I quickly forget all about the bloody river and I turn the body over to find that the corpse is that of a relatively young woman with violet hair. Her yellow eyes were off center and seemed to stare blankly into space. They were glazed over- it was the look of death- a look that I had no trouble recognizing. Her mouth was slightly hanging open and what appeared to be a light trail of blood seemed to emerge from it. It was a rather disgusting sight, but then again this _was_ a dead body I was inspecting.

I then start moving, almost instinctively. My brain finally starts making decisions I want it to make. At last, I'm not just limited to controlling my body.

I search the girl's pockets for some sort of information. Anything that this girl had on her could potentially be valuable to me. On the inside of the girl's jacket I find a bloody dagger. The average person would probably find themselves scared senseless by this point, but for some odd reason my mind seemed to work a bit differently. It probably had to do with the fact that I've already seen more than enough blood and bodies to kill the shock value altogether, but I was relying more on basic instinct- in other words, what this dagger meant in relation to my chances of survival.

This woman had likely been attacked and had managed to injure the attacker. This likely meant that whoever had attacked her was likely wounded and, as a result, was more easily evadable. It would make things easier if this same person attacked me. I decide to put the dagger towards my own use. Having two was certainly better than having one. That was something, but still not what I wanted.

I continue to search through the girl's numerous pockets. I manage to find some sort of plastic object. Pulling it out, I find that it is an identification card of some sort. It is very worn, so this woman likely had it for a long period of time. Although the sun had yet to rise, I was still able to read the details imprinted on the card.

_Naoto Sakagami_

_Age: 16_

_Student Council ID #10051986_

The name didn't sound familiar. I thought as hard about it as I could, but I assume that I don't know this person and I sigh with a tinge of disappointment. It's unfortunate that this woman didn't have anything to do with me, although the possibility remained that she might have. She could've been my sister for all I knew.

I turn around to face the river. It seemed that the trail of blood had finally halted. I took the time to sip whatever water appeared to be clean. I remain sure that the water is still contaminated but at least it didn't taste like that copper taste blood generally had.

I cross the river without wasting any more time. The person who killed this woman was injured, but they clearly had the time to clean out their innards and spill their blood over a trail of random objects. It was likely they were still somewhere nearby. I silently thank Naoto Sakagami, as if her body had not been there I likely would have stopped there for the night.

I continue further into the forest, without any real destination in mind. The only thing guiding me is the sound of the strange midnight cicadas and the glow of the moon. All I know is that I'm heading further and further away from where I started, and that is all I really need to know. I've spent two days simply trying to survive in this terrible place. I have no idea where I am or who I am. This is all I know how to do- and all I can do. I simply press onward, without any goal in sight.

Eventually, as the sound of the river fades out entirely, my eyes seem to adjust to the darkness slightly better. I can see more and more of the terrain in front of me. I suddenly become so focused on the woods in front of me that I nearly miss the odd orange tinge that sticks out at the edge of my vision.

I come to a halt entirely. That orange tinge- it meant fire. Fire made that sort of glow in a dark area. Perhaps someone had set up camp there-ah, that meant I could finally find help!

_Finally, someone alive…Someone who can help me! Someone…Just anyone…._

I almost break out into a run before something suddenly hits me.

Perhaps this was the camp the person who had murdered Naoto Sakagami had set up. But perhaps it wasn't. Perhaps it was some random family out camping who hadn't realized what had happened relatively close by.

I stop dead in my tracks. I almost fall over with how fast I came to a stop. I decide to verify for myself in the most discreet way that I can. Instead of rushing straight into potential danger, I slowly creep towards the orange glow. The glow grew larger and larger, almost too large to be from the sort of campfire that I apparently had some memory of.

Deep down I was praying that my suspicions were wrong. As I drew closer and closer, I hoped with everything that I could muster that this wasn't the camp of some crazed killer and that it was the camp of someone who could save me. I would never admit it, especially afterward, but I really hoped at some point that I had finally found rescue.

Instead, I found something entirely different from what I had feared and what I had desired. It wasn't necessarily the camp of a crazed killer, but it was still likely that the crazed killer in question was somewhere nearby.

In fact, it wasn't a camp at all. It was something much bigger.

It was a torch that was one of a large series of torches that stretched down a long and winding pathway. I almost couldn't see the pathway entirely due to the presence of some thick mist, but it seemed to shift in such a way that I was able to peer into it and down the path. The pathway was old and mostly covered in moss and plant life. At some point it had been regularly maintained, likely a long time ago, but certainly that time had long since passed. The pathway seemed to stretch down a very long way, passing large fields of seemingly nothing but dirt and moss. The path ultimately led to what appeared to be a village far off in the distance. It was a large scale form of civilization, more like a small town that a village.

In any normal survival situation, the lone survivor- in other words, me- would quickly run to the village and find relatively caring and kind people who would welcome them with open arms, allowing them to rest until finally returning to normal civilization some time after. That's how the average survival story would conclude. But with one look at the massive pillar of smoke that rose from the village I didn't want to take another step towards it.

It was very ominous. The village itself was seemingly set on fire, but the more accurate description was that the village was surrounding a fire, perhaps a massive bonfire. Aside from the massive pillar of smoke, the lights from the torches seemed to extend into the village, as if the power lines that stood amongst the streets were ignored in favor of fire.

It all seemed rather demonic. Certainly, such a village presented in such a way was meant to be steered away from. I almost considered investigating it further, but in the end it would turn out I didn't even need to.

I was so mesmerized by it all. This place- even though it was so dark and demonic- I felt as if I had seen it before. Some closed off memory was slowly leaking through- but before I could grasp what it was my thoughts were interrupted.

Being so mesmerized, I hadn't noticed that I was essentially standing in the middle of an active roadway, but given how the state of the road itself could hardly be described as active I didn't really blame myself. But in a matter of seconds I found myself being hit by something in the back of the head. I fell unconscious almost instantly.

Certainly, whoever had knocked me out had something to do with what had happened to Naoto Sakagami. And I was likely going to suffer death in a similar manner.

* * *

><p>At first my eyes wouldn't open. I could only hear the sound of rustling, which after a few seconds promptly died out. All I could hear at that point was that low demonic rumble, which at this point could've been real demons as opposed to the cicadas I had commonly associated that sound with. Perhaps it was literally what it sounded like- a low demonic rumble. Where I came from I didn't have any clue, but I was far more occupied with trying to regain consciousness. I opened my eyes- only to be met with darkness.<p>

After a few attempts at this I assumed that I was blindfolded. But upon shifting my head to the side I find that the blindfold wasn't secure in any way and the cloth that was covering my eyes slips off rather easily. I try to sit up, only to find that my arms are bound behind my back and doing so is a tad difficult. I manage to slide myself upward against what appeared to be some sort of wall behind me as my eyes adjust to the relatively dark room.

I find the room void of more or less anything. In the far corner is a stool where both of my daggers sit, although the one appears to be cleaned of blood. Aside from that, the rest of the room is void of anything- even windows. There is a doorway without a door some feet away from me, although trying to stand and run would likely not achieve anything. After all, I could easily be surrounded, or at least completely trapped. Why else would that entryway even be there?

I shift slightly, almost instinctively expecting the rather intense pain from my leg that I was used to feeling- only to find it significantly dulled. I find that my leg has been completely bandaged up and the cut on my foot dealt with the same way.

It somewhat made sense. Naoto Sakagami had been relatively blood free. Most of her blood had been used to make that strange trail. It was assumable that I will be dealt with in a similar manner. I knew that whatever the person who had captured me had in store would ultimately result in my death. That much I knew for certain.

I had two chances for survival. The first would be if I could manage to free myself from these binds and secure my daggers and break free by killing anyone who would be outside. The second would be if I simply ran for it right now and hoped that no one would see me. I decided to try and break free of the binds first.

I found it all too easy to do so. I managed to wriggle the rope tying my hands together off on a piece of wood that stuck out of the rather flimsy shed that was apparently made of wood. I was about to race for my daggers but the sound of someone approaching made me reconsider. I would simply sit where I was and hope whoever was approaching didn't notice my binds were undone.

A figure wearing what I thought was some long coat entered the room. I couldn't make out much of their figure due to the lack of lighting in the room, but from the voice that spoke I could tell it was a man. I had finally found a live human- but not the sort of live human I was hoping I would find.

"Let's see…Ah, here you are. You look a bit older now, but I can see the resemblance…Saya…?"

The man had said "Saya"… Was that my name?

"…Saya…? What is this? There's was never anyone in the village by that name…!"

My name…That was certainly my name.

_Saya. That's right…_

"…Ah, that's right…Perhaps you _are_ part of this village after all…In that case, everything works out in the end…"

_That man- he has my file…_

_I have to get it…!_

All too instantaneously I stand up and run as fast as I can towards the man. He's taken completely off guard, but he manages to swat me away rather easily.

"You're very important, Saya. I suggest that you stop resisting. You won't accomplish anything, after all...There's no one to save you out here."

His words struck true. Indeed, there wasn't anyone who could possibly get me out of this. Fortunately, I tend to be very self reliant. I decide that I can get out of this somehow; all I had to do was simply come up with a plan-

In the next moment we both realize that the daggers are within my reach. He moves to stop me, but I'm a bit too quick. Being younger and shorter certainly has its advantages. I grab them both and slice at his extended hand. He flinches backward in pain and, realizing I still wouldn't be able to grab that file I took off outside. I only made it about seven feet out the door before I was being pursued by someone I didn't even look back to see.

I just kept running, with that name- my name- ringing in my head. Things were slowly fading back into my head. The village that I had just witnessed. _That_ village I had seen from a distance. A schoolhouse. Children playing in a schoolyard. A closely knit family of villagers. One of the biggest houses in the village. All images of things I had seen- things that I knew by heart. A thousand feelings and a thousand images all suddenly hailed upon me like a massive storm.

_Saya…My name…_

_This place- and someone with my file... A file from that place…_

_Then this must be that place…My home…_

_Hinamizawa. That's right._

_But why…_

_Why isn't this the Hinamizawa I remember?_

_This isn't right._

_What happened? Why is this place so dark and scary? _

_Wasn't it different before?_

My eyes almost tear up. I could only remember the basics, but what I remembered was perfectly vivid. Surely, this was my home. But why then was it such a horrifying place?

I kept running, not even registering the ever increasing sound of my pursuer's footsteps. I simply keep running with no true destination in mind. I'm simply running- running away from a place that is so familiar yet so foreign. All I knew was that something terrible had happened. But all I could do was simply run away from it all.

In the end I knew it wouldn't do any good. I could run as far away as I could but I could never truly escape.

I continue into the forest despite what I already knew to be true. I just kept running. It was all I really knew how to do at this point.

I make a break for the next clearing that I come across. I finally had the opportunity to look behind me and determine who was chasing me.

I saw someone dressed in the same uniform as Naoto Sakagami- but this person was certainly not on my side. In her left hand was what I believed to be a short sword of some kind. She ran at me without any sign of tiring and with a gaze of complete determination and attention. I didn't see any sort of intimidation in her expression- that is until I looked into her eyes. Her eyes were empty and glazed over as Sakagami's had been, as if she were simply a walking corpse. She seemed to stare into my soul when our gazes met. I turned away, not being able to bear looking at her any longer.

I continue to run, but eventually I reach my limit.

The woman jumps at me, tackling me to the ground in the single instant that my speed reduces. She forces the short sword into my bandaged leg. I howl in pain, but I manage to force her off of me with enough ease. I aimlessly swing the dagger somewhere in her general direction and leave a large gash across her previously spotless face.

I could swear that I hear a growl coming from her as she rips the sword out of my leg and tries to aim for my head. I roll out of the way in time to slash at her again with the dagger. She blocks it, and given the low durability of a dagger compared to a sword it was sent flying off to my left. She forces my left hand to the ground as she readies the sword for a final plunge into my skull.

Unfortunately for her, she didn't seem to know I had a second dagger.

I plunge the dagger into her chest. She screams and backs away instantly. I take the opportunity to scramble away as fast as I can. I roll down a hill I didn't even know was there and I instantly get up and start running.

But with the sword having left its mark I was running even slower than before. I could barely feel my leg at all, and I knew that the bleeding would likely pose a serious problem if I were to continue onward. But I couldn't stop to rest- that woman was likely still going to chase me, although it still remained possible that she would back off since she was relatively badly injured.

I continue onward, having only a single destination in mind. If my memory of the village is accurate, then there is one place that they wouldn't dare to chase me to.

But the pain hurt so much. I could try to bandage it but the stab likely went deeper than the original wolf bite had and it wouldn't do that much good. The damage was more internal this time than external, and a simple bandage wouldn't prevent any further damage.

All I could do was continue onward, lost and alone.

_Please…Someone…Anyone…_

_Help me…!_

* * *

><p>I didn't think I had a chance- really, I didn't. But looking back on it now, it's ironic just how close I was even though it seemed so far away back then.<p>

I crawled along the long and beaten path to what I was somewhat sure was the north. I knew that if I went there they would be breaking their ritualistic traditions by violating their god's law. It was something that had stuck out amongst my memories of that place even before it became a shadow of itself.

I continued along that path with my battered and nearly broken leg causing me to go into throws of pain along the way. It seemed to take hours to make even the smallest amount of progress. I was somewhat sure that the further I went the more likely I was to survive, but given how slow I was going I wasn't sure if it would make any difference.

I kept moving along. I tried to suppress any and all questions going through my head and focus on the path ahead. Eventually it came to the point where I didn't even know how far north I was. I could easily just keep moving until I hit the edge of the ocean. It was long and painful, but eventually it came to the point where my long journey came to an abrupt end.

No, I didn't die. I just finally encountered the miracle that I needed.

I heard a voice ring out. I wasn't surprised that someone had heard me since I wasn't making any effort to hide my presence in any way. I wasn't physically capable of doing that. It was enough of a miracle that I could make it this far without passing out.

"W-Who's there?"

Almost instinctively I reach for my dagger and move towards the voice. I'll just get the jump on them and-

As I emerge from the shrubbery, I am met with a rather frightened girl- although she might as well have been an angel- pointing a gun in my general direction. She's wearing the same uniform as Naoto Sakagami so I assume they know each other and that we have a common enemy. She's visibly shaking- clearly she isn't looking to kill me, but rather to defend herself. I can certainly hope she won't pull that trigger. It almost seems like a dream- we both stare at each other for awhile until we both come to that same conclusion, likely off of instinct. We both are clearly shocked that the other _didn't _try to kill them, so this woman was likely in a situation similar to mine. If either of us had wanted the other dead, it would've happened already. She lowers the gun and I simply drop the dagger.

I'm utterly shocked. Someone- a live human who isn't trying to kill me. Someone else- someone else besides me.

Being alone for that period of time is enough to crack anyone. I'm no exception in the slightest.

"Are you…Real? Are you… really sitting there? Please, tell me you are…!" I lose all of my composure in less than a second.

She nods her head. She still seems nervous, but she seems a bit less on edge than a few moments ago. She seems to be quite a bit less excited about finding another living person that I am. Perhaps she wasn't out here for as long as I was. All I knew was that the entire experience was enough to drive me insane. I figured I had the right to break down. Selfish? Yes. But necessary.

"…Please, please tell me…That you won't kill me…" I whisper.

The girl nods her head.

"…I won't." She speaks. She still seems uncertain, but at this point she knows that I'm not a threat to her.

"…Please, tell me, you'll…Save me…"

I slowly walk towards her.

"…Because I can't stand being alone, anymore…"

I crash on top of her. My emotions all pour out at the same time. She flinches, although that is to be expected. She gradually relaxes.

I can finally rest, even if just for the moment.

"…Please, let me stay…I can't go back out there anymore… This place is…" I cry.

"I know… It's okay. Don't worry, you can stay here."

"…Thank you…"

Her arms wrap around me. Perhaps I reminded her of someone, or perhaps this was instinctive on her part. I'm not all that sure why but I don't reject the kind gesture.

"…I'm Yoko. Yoko Narukami. What's your name?" She speaks to me as if I'm a small child. I might as well be.

It's ironic. Only a few hours ago I wouldn't have been able to answer that question. But now, as my mental trauma seems to lessen, I am able to fully answer her question. "…Saya." Of course I still don't know who Saya is- all I know is that she's me, and that she grew up in a peaceful village called Hinamizawa.

"…It's nice to meet you, Saya."

I don't respond. I can't find any words to answer with. I'm utterly and totally stupefied that I've found another person- another person lost like I was. I knew I could trust her.

It was very reassuring.

I might not know a thing about myself, but I know where the answers are. And now I'm not alone- I have someone to rely on at long last. I don't even know a single thing about her either- only that we are both survivors of a terrible crisis. I knew that someday soon I would be able to return to the village and finally remember who I am.

But first thing's first.

"Yoko…Will you listen?"

"Listen to what?"

"…To my story? Of everything that happened up to this point? I-I'll listen to yours as well."

"…Alright. I will. Tell me everything…I'll do the same thing."

And so, pressed against her, I began my tale. A tale you already are familiar with. I told the entire thing without leaving out a single detail.

My story up until this point has been one of constant and consistent tragedy. But I can now hope for the future- a future where everything will come to an end and I can finally live.

I might not be anyone right now.

But I was certainly someone.

I will remember who I am and why I am. And I will become that person again, no matter what it takes.

* * *

><p><em>Hollow Forest Chapter Result:<em>

Saya - Alive, even for just the moment, with the possibility of a future still open to her.  
>Yoko Narukami- Still alive despite her lack of will to live. She now lives with the same hope her companion has.<p> 


	16. Bio Study Observation 10

**Bio-Study-Observation 10 : Subject ACER-0138234691**

You know what? Unacceptable, C- grade poem time. Although I'm a terrible poet, I'm going to throw this together for you. I can spend all day writing pages and pages worth of material- but you know what? I'm not going to. This is mainly for the upper staff to read. Since it's directed to you damn fools, I guess you can consider this my first punishable offense. Fire me for it, but at least do it some justice and scrutinize it down to the last detail. I'm sure one of you can figure things out from what I've written down. I feel a bit like a little kid writing an obvious secret message to entertain himself for writing this in such a way but whatever. I might as well be a little kid for all I care.

I never thought things would turn out this way

A simple patent- that's all he was- turned to someone so much greater

Maybe it was always meant to be, but I never understood, even to the end

That something so distant- someone so far away- could suddenly become so close

How many days have passed, I wonder?

Everything I've done before seems so long ago

Like a passing storm or a fleeting dream

Or something poetic sounding like that

Racing away like a rushing river

Dying along with all those around me

Only leaving me behind to wade in my guilt

For all the times I've wasted away

This poem really does suck, huh?

However many years I spent

Ever wasting my years away

For all the crap I gave my bosses

Like I never saw things the same way

I'm an ass, through and through

Except now, when I'm backed against a wall

Sighing a song of self pity, which I thought would work out as a poem

And despite all of that I'm still here

Never once turning away

Death can await me, I really don't care

I can still keep going- I'm still here

And if I survive, but I know I won't

Maybe I can truly start living

For I know with certainty that this tale moves on

Racing down the path towards its bitter conclusion

Everything is coming to the climax

Everything will certainly come to an end- soon

**Report End**

**Please turn to page 29**

* * *

><p>And that's the end of that. FYI- that poem has no flow to it on purpose. But enough about that.<p>

The single side story for Chapter 3 will be put up whenever I get it edited. As far as progress is concerned, I've nearly completed Chapter 4, with the side story for 3 being as difficult to write as the original chapter was. I'll put it this way- the narration is about to get a whole lot more unreliable. And it'll (hopefully) be one of the longest side chapters.

I'll attempt to get the next batch of stuff up fairly soon. I might even post the last side story and Chapter 4 at the same time, if it works out that way.


	17. Everyone Lives Chapter

_**Author's Note**_

So here's the last of the side story chapters. This one is a bit long and it actually "leaves" the story for a short while, so be on the lookout for that.

Regarding my reviewer's comment about the hyphen issue, I'll admit to it being a sort of a bad habit of mine. Awhile ago I had a version of MS Word that _didn't _auto correct for some really strange reason and so I ended up using that method to differentiate. My current one _does_, but I pretty much just kept doing what I had been doing. But, since you've pointed it out I'll try to catch myself with doing that from now on, and if I don't I'll just correct it via proofread.

Anyway, with my ignorance out of the way, let's get on with the chapter. This one is a bit of a misdirection, if I do say so myself. The name sort of gives it away as well.

Also, if you haven't decoded the very (and I mean _very_) thinly veiled message in the last report, look into it again before reading the next report.

* * *

><p><strong>Everyone Lives Chapter<strong>

_It saddens me that this is the last time we will meet here like this, but all good–or possibly mediocre–things must come to an end, despite the length this tale has accumulated. While the previous of these tales is certainly the most important to the user defined truth, the tale currently being processed will be littered to the brim with information that you won't want to miss a kernel of. In fact, I suggest you re-read this tale upon completion__–I assure you, you'll really want to do so and in due haste._

_Moving on, the tale you are about to read is not a tale as apparently pleasant and upbeat as the title implies. In fact, this tale is far darker than any tale presented before. It is so simply because the user defined truth demands that even the best scenario be twisted and mutilated into something far darker and far more detrimental to one's high spirits than need be. This tale is not a tale of the Hinamizawa in which everyone lives happily ever after. Despite that, in this tale everyone does indeed live. But happily ever after? Surely, you jest. _

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (Perspective character gets the bold):  
><em>Sonozaki Mion  
>Sonozaki Shion<br>Ryuugu Rena  
>Maebara Keichi<br>Furude Rika  
><strong>The Unreliable Narrator<strong> (Faceless)

She places down a large book, filled with nothing but blank pages aside from the ones she had just finished writing on. Her writing had only just begun, but one day the pages of that book would be filled to the brim with details and information pertaining to the wonderful life she had established for herself. She had decided after much debate that simply allowing time to pass would not render anything beneficial. She decided that she would write- she would chronicle the village as it was during its years of peace. Through writing, she believed that she would one day be able to look back on the days that had gone by and managed to realize exactly how lucky she had been to have been able to escape from that horrible fate that she was almost certain could not be avoided.

Rena Ryuugu certainly thought that she had been blessed to make it this far–and given how things had ultimately ended she was ever so pleased she could spend her new life with her close friends. But what made things even better was that she could spend her years with _all _of them.

Rena herself was relatively pleased with what had happened as a whole in the June of 1983. She found herself content without her step mother, who she assumed was still spending her days where she had last seen her. In the end they came to a bloodless solution. She simply made her stop hurting her nearly collapsed family and through some sort of miracle had managed to resolve the situation in such a way that Rina would never bother her ever again. She had convinced her to move somewhere where she couldn't hurt anyone close to her ever again. It all happened without a single drop of blood being spilt, which made things even better.

Rena didn't even hate her any longer in the aftermath of the entire ordeal. She would visit her regularly and in many instances bring her food, since she assumed that Rina wouldn't be getting out of her new home all that often, although Rena wasn't entirely sure why she seemed to be so lifeless in that sense.

So Rena turned her attention to the wonderful new Hinamizawa that she and her friends had created. In the end she thought that someone would have to die, but thankfully no one was forced to deal with that. Everything that could have ended in failure ended up culminating in what Mion would go on to casually call their finest hour. Rena couldn't help but agree with her at times. But eventually the incident faded from memory entirely. If Rena hadn't written it down in that book she likely would have forgotten at this point. Their lives had advanced so much since that point. Rena would have stopped then to recall all of the drastic changes that had gone on in the village but suddenly realized that she would be late for work.

It wasn't actually work in the greatest sense. It was just a part time job that Chie-sensei had given her for the duration of the summer. She would go to the school relatively early in the morning and help the principal sort papers and files to a certain degree. She'd been working at the school and receiving a rather bulky sum of seven-hundred yen –considering what she was doing–that she would either spend on Keichi or on buying food for Rina if she needed any.

She quickly headed out the door. She was already dressed, as she usually placed writing towards the end of her morning routine. She was met with a rather radiant morning. She took a single deep breath and exhaled, a small smile appearing on her face as she did so. The mornings in Hinamizawa were ever so pleasant these days. She shut her eyes and took in the sounds- it was relatively silent, sans the sounds of birds in the distance, as if some cheesy nature scene from a movie. Rena could swear the pleasant background music would start any second.

The sun was especially bright today, or perhaps it was simply her eyes playing tricks on her. It was likely because of the strange fog that had moved into the area and had seemingly moved out as mysteriously as it moved in. She began her morning routine, following her usual route to the school, passing Keichi's house along the way and nearly forgetting that he wouldn't be up this early in the morning.

Ah, that's right–Keichi. Whenever Rena so much as thought about him her heart gave a little flutter. She was so madly in love with him that she never spent a day without wondering what would happen if she decided to come out and ask him. She knew that Mion was interested in him a well, but she didn't seem too concerned about it. Although she couldn't help but feel that there was something going on between the two of them that she didn't fully know about, she never thought that the two of them would ever end up together. She wasn't afraid for her future with Keichi in the slightest–and given how much money she's spent on him if her future with him _were _at risk she didn't know what she would do.

Rena's mind finally snapped away from thoughts about Keichi and, as she usually ended up doing on a daily basis, she forgot to keep track of time and found herself breaking into a sprint in the direction of the school. She was still as absent minded as she ever was.

She ended up racing right into the muddy section of road that she always seemed to never take heed of. In the past she'd fallen face first into the dirt, but that time Keichi happened to be with her and she didn't have to deal with as much embarrassment as she did the _next _time she tripped. This time around she was already used to it–as she was to the bulk of her morning routine. No one seemed to be up and active at this time of day, so she didn't need to worry about slowing down since very few cars would be moving about.

At the end of her sprint she'd spent a very short amount of time getting to the school. She raced to the principal's office with most of the wind knocked out of her.

"I-I'm sorry I'm late!" Rena opened the door as she shouted her usual apology. It turned out there was no one on the other side of the door to apologize to. She sighed and walked over to the nearby desk where a note had been left. It was addressed to her.

_Out getting a haircut. The files are in that cabinet over by the radiator. Sort them and you can find your money in my desk in the first drawer on the left._

_~Principal_

This was the same excuse as the last time he hadn't shown up. The principal certainly didn't need a haircut, let alone needing one only four days since his last. Rena sighed and moved over to the cabinet in question. Opening the cabinet, she found a stack of somewhere around thirty files that needed sorting.

Rena sighed again, but energetically went to work. Sorting files was surprisingly easy, but Rena couldn't help but wonder where they were all coming from. As she worked on sorting them, she recalled an instance some time earlier where Keichi had stopped by to watch her sort these. It was part of the reason why she liked doing this sort of work so much.

"_Wait, so you just sit here and sort files?"_

"_Yeah, it's nothing all that hard. It's really easy."_

"_But…What's in the files?" Keichi seemed somewhat dubious as to what could possibly be in such stuffed folders. _

"_Well, every person in the village gets one. Everyone who ever lived here for any amount of time has one of these. These are given to doctors and teachers and pretty much go wherever the person the file is about goes." Rena recited information nearly identical to what the principal had told her. _

"_Wait, so I have a file too?"_

"_Yep!" _

"…_How much stuff is crammed into mine?"_

"_Let's see…Here it is. Wow, Keichi-kun, your file's huge!" _

"…_Can I see it?" Keichi was a tad concerned with the size of that folder. _

"_Keichi-kun, I can't let you."_

"_W-Well why not?"_

"_I'm not allowed."_

"…_Fine, whatever…I'll just take a peek once you leave…"_

_Rena suddenly started to squeeze Keichi's file "Ah! Keichi-kun's file is so cute! I wanna take it ho-ome~!" She turned and fled the room._

"_E-Eh? Hey, where the hell are you going?" Keichi ran after her._

Rena found herself audibly laughing. She always had fond memories of time she had spent with Keichi. She almost lost track of what she was doing, but she remained somewhat focused to the end of her task. The task of file sorting was fairly important. Most children who grew up in the village–unlike poor confused Keichi–were told fairly early on that their file had all of their important information in it. If a total stranger happened to know anything about them, chances were they'd seen the file and had access to it. Most of the children in the village knew the townsfolk, considering how tightly knit the village was, and so the file served the purpose of keeping children from wandering off with total strangers as easily as they might have. These days, most of the files only had information pertaining to the identities of the families the citizens were a part of. Anyone who grew up in the village would have known about them regardless of whatever information was included, making it easy to see why Keichi had such a strange reaction to hearing about his file.

The files didn't actually indicate the first name of the person the file was about. It was primarily a way for outside sources to associate a person's face with the strength of that family within the village–in other words determine who was the richest and therefore the first selection for any substantial amount of medical care. It was a system that had existed for as long as any of the village elders could remember. It didn't have the most pleasant reasoning behind it but it was still important none the less.

Rena was particularly good for this job, primarily because she knew all of the children in the village by heart and didn't need a first name and could identify them by facial profile. There was not a single child that she didn't already know and had been decent friends with. She was well aware of those who had left, and so if she came across any files of any children who had left she would be able to handle the files accordingly. The files had apparently not been sorted – at least those in the schoolhouse–for quite some time. But Rena found it strange that, aside from the Kimiyoshi daughter, that not a single child had left the village while attending the school since these records were being kept. She wondered if the village's hold on people was really that strong.

As time went on she found herself listening to the sounds outside. She could hear children actively playing in the area just outside the school building. The schoolyard was open to any children during the summer, while during the normal year would only be open to children that went to the school. This really didn't pose that much of an issue, considering how almost all–if not all–the children actually went to the school.

Rena finished her work relatively early that day, and so she decided that with what time she had left before she had to visit Rina she would head to the Furude Shrine. It had been quite some time since she had last seen Rika and Satoko, although she assumed that Satoko was back with her brother at this point. She still decided to walk all the way to the shrine anyhow.

The walk was relatively quiet. There wasn't anyone around the Furude Shrine this time of year, since mostly everyone was either out in the city or hanging around the school or the stores in town. She didn't see anyone in particular. In fact, she didn't see anyone at all. It was only a bit peculiar, but since it was midday she didn't think all that much of it.

She managed to reach the shrine before the sun was able to set. The shrine itself was not very well kept, but Rena assumed that there was only so much that Rika could do all on her own. Sadly, it seemed that Rika was nowhere to be found. Rena was about to enter the shrine itself to see if she happened to be inside that moment, but found a note taped to the sliding door.

_Out to buy cat food. Will be back by 8 P.M. _

_Satoko, start dinner without me. _

_~ Rika_

She also included a 'nipah' as her closing statement. Rena smiled. It seemed she wasn't having any luck finding people today. 8 P.M. was far too late for her to wait for Rika to return, since she wouldn't have enough time to make it back home in time for that thing she needed to do. It seemed that Satoko was still living with her but Rena decided against bothering her, especially since it was getting close to the time they would normally have dinner.

Rena went to visit Rina and left some food supplies for her. She was asleep on her couch at the time and Rena didn't bother her, so they had no interaction that day.

She decided to head back to her own house. The walk ended up taking up whatever light was left as the sun set on the village. Hinamizawa was just as beautiful at night as it was during the day. It was dead silent, though, making the atmosphere a tad creepy. But the village was never particularly threatening at night. It wasn't like there were wolves nearby or anything. In fact, wolves hadn't been spotted anywhere near Hinamizawa in years. But Rena could easily deal with them–she _was_ fairly good at defending herself, be it from another person or a wild animal.

She made it home without all that much difficulty. It was never really much of an issue traveling around in the dark, although there were fewer street lights on than usual for some odd reason. Rena didn't think all that much about it. Instead she chose to take care of that thing she had wanted to do.

_Right…Tonight's the night I'm going to tell him…_

Rena quickly put together the dinner she had planned out ahead of time and took off, heading for Keichi's house…

* * *

><p>He woke up rather groggily to the sound of his alarm clock. It was still the summer break period, but he had more than enough trouble to deal with that when it came around for school to resume he would barely be able to tell the difference. He tossed the alarm clock towards the nearby wall, not caring if it broke. He'd just repair it like he had the last time.<p>

His eyes shifted over to the table to his left as his vision became progressively less clouded. The medicine bottles were all arranged according to the time of day he needed to take them. He grabbed towards the one nearest to him before deciding it wasn't worth expending the energy. But when his vision swam and he felt a tad dizzy he reached for the bottle again and almost reflexively opened the bottle, swallowed one of the black pills inside without any water, and screwed the cap back on the bottle. His head went to a light period of aching but died down as the medicine's impressively quick effect calmed him down in a matter of five minutes.

He sat up; removing the shirt he was wearing and tossing on the same shirt he wore yesterday that just so happened to be on that same table. It was just as clean as a freshly cleaned one, since he only had three shirts to wear and he washed them almost regularly.

He moved to stand, only to find something holding him down.

He looked down to find a relatively awake girl, with her arms fastened around him, staring at him with the same empty expression that she always gave him when they were alone.

"You didn't wake me up." Her voice was as unexpressive as ever.

"You can use the sleep." His response was just as absent of expression.

"So can you."

"I can't be sleeping at a time like this."

"You took your pill, right? You can go back to sleep."

"That's not the point."

"Then what's your point?"

"I have things to do."

"You have nothing going on and we both know that."

"We both know that I _do_ have something going on."

"Fine then. Go on, get going. I won't keep you." She let go of him and, after giving him a relatively lacking kiss slid back under the covers of the bed.

He stood up and left the building without another word. He almost hesitated with leaving, considering he had a decent idea of what would greet him when he did so. He opened the front door to be hit with both an irritating heat wave and the rather annoying sound of those cicadas.

_God damn. Those things can't shut up, can they?_

He took one step outside to find that the sun's intensity was particularly strong. There had been some strange fog in the village prior to now, which he had actually been perfectly fine with. The sun was really his greatest opponent in these sorts of situations.

He sighed, took a single step forward again, and closed the door behind him. He wordlessly proceeded down the road towards his destination. He wasn't doing any sort of part time work or anything like that, but rather he was doing work of a completely different sort.

He'd found out _things_. Terrible things about the village and what had gone on in the past. And so he now had been roped into part of the grand cover up. Considering the circumstances, he had no right to refuse. Not after what had happened to _her_. In fact, it was actually her fault to a certain degree. If someone else had found her, then they would be stuck with the mess he has to deal with.

He proceeded to the clinic as he had been instructed to. Apparently his involvement with what was going on at the clinic would not detract from his school attendance. Apparently the director had worked things out with Chie-sensei and so he could still continue working like this even after school resumed.

This was the life of Maebara Keichi. The life that he'd won through the sheerest amount of luck humanly possible. The life that he'd trade for anything else in the world.

He wordlessly proceeds down the road. His disheveled appearance receives a few glances from the passers-by, while his slow movement almost results in someone offering to call for an ambulance. At one time Keichi had actually considered that option, considering how it would save him the walking time getting to the clinic.

He wordlessly finished his hour long walk to the clinic and wordlessly entered the building while wordlessly greeting Director Irie, who promptly handed him what appeared to be files.

"Sort these for me."

"What does this have to do with anything?" In Keichi's language, he was simply asking what they were for.

"I need to send these to our outside source. Copies of these folders need to get around, you know. I'm sure I've explained this in the past."

"Whatever. I'll do it."

Keichi's primary job this day was to sort files. These files were unique to each individual who had received some extent of medical care at the clinic. Irie knew all of the details by heart, and likely could recognize a patient by sight alone. Of course, any of the other medical staff at the clinic, as well as the medical practitioners outside the village that dealt with the Hinamizawa Syndrome side of things, had to be as familiar with the details as he was so it wasn't as if Irie was anything special.

Keichi wordlessly completed his task.

"Say, Keichi." Irie had spoke for the first time in quite awhile.

"Yeah?"

"You haven't asked me about Rena-chan today."

"If something had changed I figured you'd tell me." Keichi's rather weak response did not suffice for Irie.

"I've told you so many times already that you need to show more concern for things. It's not like you to be so indifferent to everything."

"Do I look that indifferent to you? Do I look like I'm sorting your crap for my health?" If Keichi could remember what an angry voice was supposed to sound like he would've used one.

"Your sorting my crap because you have to."

"I really don't _have _to do anything, now do I?"

"Let's not argue about this. You know more about what goes on in this village than any one of the Sonozakis know."

"Whatever. I really don't care. If you want to complain about something complain about something that I can argue against."

Irie didn't make any sort of sound afterward.

Keichi didn't really have anything planned out for the rest of the day after he had finished working at the clinic. He had to return home by two in the afternoon to take another pill, but until then he could essentially do whatever he wanted to. He chose to spend the time simply walking back to his house. It wasn't like the twins would be available to do anything, nor would Satoko be doing anything but taking care of her uncle's messes. Rika was probably occupied herself as well.

He returned home and proceeded to his room without a sound. He swallowed the pill whole, ignored the girl who was still apparently asleep in bed, and proceeded downstairs and out the building again. He wandered around for a few hours, doing nothing in particular aside from returning to the clinic at seven P.M. as it was required of him.

At night, Irie would bring in the syndrome patients. Keichi had to essentially help him "operate" on them to determine a variety of things. Keichi always ends up wearing himself out during these sessions as he isn't really trained for this sort of thing. Irie's mad scientist sessions were always well above him.

Afterward midnight is relatively close at hand, and so he returns home, takes the final pill and returns to sleep. He never bothers to check to see if that girl is still there.

He woke up rather groggily to the sound of his alarm clock. It was still the summer break period, but he had more than enough trouble to deal with that when it came around for school to resume he would barely be able to tell the difference. He tossed the alarm clock towards the nearby wall, not caring if it broke. He'd just repair it like he had the last time.

His eyes shifted over to the table to his left as his vision became progressively less clouded. The medicine bottles were all arranged according to the time of day he needed to take them. He grabbed towards the one nearest to him before deciding it wasn't worth expending the energy. But when his vision swam and he felt a tad dizzy he reached for the bottle again and almost reflexively opened the bottle, swallowed one of the black pills inside without any water, and screwed the cap back on the bottle. His head went to a light period of aching but died down as the medicine's impressively quick effect calmed him down in a matter of five minutes.

He sat up; removing the shirt he was wearing and tossing on the same shirt he wore yesterday that just so happened to be on that same table. It was just as clean as a freshly cleaned one, since he only had three shirts to wear and he washed them almost regularly.

He moved to stand, only to find something holding him down.

He looked down to find a relatively awake girl, with her arms fastened around him, staring at him with the same empty expression that she always gave him when they were alone.

"You didn't wake me up." Her voice was as unexpressive as ever.

"You can use the sleep." His response was just as absent of expression.

"So can you."

"I can't be sleeping at a time like this."

"You took your pill, right? You can go back to sleep."

"That's not the point."

"Then what's your point?"

"I have things to do."

"You have nothing going on and we both know that."

"We both know that I _do_ have something going on."

"Fine then. Go on, get going. I won't keep you." She let go of him and, after giving him a relatively lacking kiss slid back under the covers of the bed.

He stood up and left the building without another word. He almost hesitated with leaving, considering he had a decent idea of what would greet him when he did so. He opened the front door to be hit with both an irritating heat wave and the rather annoying sound of those cicadas.

_God damn. Those things can't shut up, can they?_

He took one step outside to find that the sun's intensity was particularly strong. He sighed, took a single step forward again, and closed the door behind him. He wordlessly proceeded down the road towards his destination.

Today Irie had him observe Rena for a period of time. She'd come down with a serious case of the syndrome – which had apparently advanced to such levels she forced herself into a comatose state. It was a similar situation with Satoko's brother, but in this situation the patient shut themselves off as opposed to being shut off in the aftermath of the traumatizing effects of the syndrome.

"Say, Keichi."

"Yeah?"

"Have you ever lost something important to you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"Have you?"

"Sure, why not?" He shrugged his shoulders and turned away from him.

"What does it feel like?"

"You mean to tell me you of all people don't know?"

"Does it feel like anything particular?"

"I'll have to get back to you on that." Keichi was essentially dodging the odd question in its entirety.

He left the clinic shortly afterward. He returned home and proceeded to his room without a sound. He swallowed the second pill whole, ignored the girl who was still apparently asleep in bed, and proceeded downstairs and out the building again. He wandered around for a few hours, doing nothing in particular aside from returning to the clinic at seven P.M. as it was required of him.

The evening session was unremarkable.

Afterward midnight is relatively close at hand, and so he returns home, takes the final pill and returns to sleep. He never bothers to check to see if that girl is still there.

He woke up rather groggily to the sound of his alarm clock. It was still the summer break period, but he had more than enough trouble to deal with that when it came around for school to resume he would barely be able to tell the difference. He tossed the alarm clock towards the nearby wall, not caring if it broke. He'd just repair it like he had the last time.

His eyes shifted over to the table to his left as his vision became progressively less clouded. The medicine bottles were all arranged according to the time of day he needed to take them. He grabbed towards the one nearest to him before deciding it wasn't worth expending the energy. But when his vision swam and he felt a tad dizzy he reached for the bottle again and almost reflexively opened the bottle, swallowed one of the black pills inside without any water, and screwed the cap back on the bottle. His head went to a light period of aching but died down as the medicine's impressively quick effect calmed him down in a matter of five minutes.

He sat up; removing the shirt he was wearing and tossing on the same shirt he wore yesterday that just so happened to be on that same table. It was just as clean as a freshly cleaned one, since he only had three shirts to wear and he washed them almost regularly.

He moved to stand, only to find something holding him down.

He looked down to find a relatively awake girl, with her arms fastened around him, staring at him with the same empty expression that she always gave him when they were alone.

"You didn't wake me up." Her voice was as unexpressive as ever.

"You can use the sleep." His response was just as absent of expression.

"So can you."

"I can't be sleeping at a time like this."

"You took your pill, right? You can go back to sleep."

"That's not the point."

"Then what's your point?"

"I have things to do."

"You have nothing going on and we both know that."

"We both know that I _do_ have something going on."

"Fine then. Go on, get going. I won't keep you." She let go of him and, after giving him a relatively lacking kiss slid back under the covers of the bed.

He stood up and left the building without another word. He almost hesitated with leaving, considering he had a decent idea of what would greet him when he did so. He opened the front door to be hit with both an irritating heat wave and the rather annoying sound of those cicadas.

_God damn. Those things can't shut up, can they?_

He took one step outside to find that the sun's intensity was particularly strong.

He sighs. He takes a single step backward and slams the door closed in front of him. He remains in the air conditioned space of his house. Well, in all technicalities, now that he had time to think about it, it wasn't exactly his house. His house was being sold off, as his parents were planning on moving out of the village entirely to avoid future attacks from wolves, which had hospitalized the both of them in recent weeks. Rena had apparently managed to kill them before they could do any real damage. She seemed rather adept at doing so.

He was living here, with that other person. That girl who he consistently ignores.

He suddenly feels someone wrap their arms around him. It is doubtlessly the girl who he ignores. There's no doubt about it.

"You didn't go out today."

"No. I didn't."

"But won't Irie-san get mad?"

"Screw him. I'm not doing anything today."

"…I'm happy, Keichi."

"Why are _you_ happy?"

"Because you aren't going to leave me here today."

"…Rika, how old are you again?"

"Somewhere in the two-hundreds. What of it?"

"You don't really need me around, do you?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Should you really attach yourself to me like this?"

"You didn't seem to have a problem whenever we slept together."

"That was a long time ago."

"Should it really be any different now?"

"If you say it shouldn't, then I guess it shouldn't." That was Keichi's way of admitting defeat in an argument. In this sense he was just dismissing the issue entirely. He certainly didn't want to argue with her.

Their relationship was far more strained than it needed to be. But the fact that their relationship even began in the first place was due to strain–strain from that which forces Keichi to take the black pills every single day.

His very own syndrome–a syndrome that apparently was different from the other forms that had sprouted up within the village. His could be readily cured with medicine, and as he had yet to go entirely insane he assumed that they were doing their job. Apparently if he didn't believe it would work it simply wouldn't, so in the end it all worked out.

But then again, perhaps it was Rika keeping his unstable mind from breaking apart at the foundations. Perhaps it wasn't the medicine. Perhaps it was simply the security that a partner had given him. It's needless to say he fought between these two possibilities.

Rika believed that the medicine was some sort of false drug. She thought it was doing more harm than good to him. But for the sake of his sanity, he had to disagree with her. Knowing that he would never trust her fully, Rika became distant from him more and more consistently. It was all rather self-centered on her part, but in the end there was little that mattered. In the event that the medicine truly was to work, he could never give himself fully to her, in any way imaginable. He could not love her fully, simply because the medicine itself was his life line. Attempting to love her fully, while still bound to that drug–the drug that she completely detested–simply wasn't worth the pain it would cause the both of them.

But then again, Keichi began to wonder if his inner conflict was the force driving himself insane the entire time. But in the end he could never accept one possibility as the truth. But the fact that Rika was still willing to remain here, even though their relationship had degenerated to part of an unchanging daily routine.

Keichi had broken that routine, but in the end he broke it simply because he tired of it. But he would still take the medicine.

He wasn't sure if the medicine was even medicine as opposed to poison. He wasn't sure if he ever had the syndrome to begin with and Irie was simply trying to keep him quiet about the goings-on of the village by establishing this do or die sort of routine he'd followed religiously up to this point. But he wouldn't dare stop taking the medicine.

He was alive. And as long as he was alive he would do whatever he deemed necessary to stay alive. He'd fought long and hard for a future that he had finally attained–a future that he would not give up for anything.

But did he hate Rika? Certainly not. In fact, if she weren't there, there would be no evidence that he was even still alive. Sure, he would report to Irie as consistently as ever, but was that truly living? He would simply just be walking about, fulfilling a set routine and returning to nothing–to no one.

_Right. Rika is here, therefore I am. _

"…Keichi." Her quiet and rather emotionless voice pulled him back to reality.

"Yeah?"

"Do you love me?"

"No." He said rather plainly. "I just can't live without you."

"Good. Then that's how it'll be." Rika did not release him. She simply stayed that way and the two stood there in that same place for a long time.

Was there any sort of love here? No.

Would there ever be any love here? No.

But was there need and want? Certainly.

Would there always be need and want? Certainly.

* * *

><p>Morning broke, as it did every morning. Mion Sonozaki woke as she did every morning. Keichi was out an about as he was every morning. He spent every day going to the same place, as he did every morning. Mion would always closely follow him and watch his every move as she always did every morning. It was a rather routine day for the now seemingly degenerate lifestyle that Mion had taken up.<p>

It was all really Irie's fault. Irie had essentially tricked Keichi into taking Vitamin C pills, claiming them to be pills to keep his syndrome in check. But attaching Keichi to a drug that wasn't even a drug was doing more harm than good. Keichi needed to be attached to someone–and that someone had ended up living with him for the sole purpose of trying to prove the pill and Irie wrong. Keichi would still, however, go crazy at this point if he ever tried to remove himself from the pill. It was a trap that Irie had cleverly built–simply because Keichi knew everything there was to know about the syndrome and therefore was a threat.

Mion had been plotting to kill Irie, or at least expose him for his crimes, for months. First it had been Rena, and now Keichi. Two of the people who knew everything were going to be silenced, just like that.

But she wouldn't let him do that to Keichi. She wouldn't let _anyone_ harm Keichi. She sacrificed everything to protect him–everything she had to save her obsession.

There had been quite a few obstacles. First there was Shion–or Mion, she didn't even know which twin she was at this point but still went with the name that sounded right–who had objected to the entire thing. She'd gone and locked her away in the old Sonozaki torture chamber, where she wouldn't be that much of a problem. She was still alive down there, and probably knew which of the two twins she was. Mion considered asking her but she had more important things to do. At some point her mother had wondered where Shion had gone off to. Mion did much the same with her. The remainder of the house did not question the disappearance of two of its members.

Keichi leaves his house. He goes down the street. Mion follows closely. Keichi enters Irie's clinic. Mion hides in the bushes nearby for the entire day. Keichi leaves the clinic and wanders. Mion keeps her distance while following him constantly. Keichi returns to the clinic. Mion hides in the bushes nearby for the entire evening. Keichi returns home. Mion follows, verifies that he is asleep, and then returns home herself.

That pattern loops every day. It will continue to loop until Mion finds and opening and manages to slip in and kill Irie. But for now he was still alive. As was anyone else who had potentially wronged Keichi. Mion would likely look into his file–which she had total control over, having snagged it from a syndrome afflicted Rena as she rummaged through the school's copies of the files–and figure out anyone else who had potentially done something that had damaged him in any way.

Mion never stopped to wonder why she had this sort of obsession over Keichi. But for the sake of the story it was simply because she was far too deeply in love with him, and her chance to love him had been taken from her rather quickly, once by Rena, again by Rika, and finally by the pill Irie had gotten him addicted to.

One morning, after school had resumed and Keichi's routine still failed to change, Mion overheard two girls talking about how dead he looked and how much of a freak he likely was. She then determined it was fit to break off her cycle for that day, and so she stalked both of the girls to their respective homes and instead of killing them both outright she began by leaving letters and signs threatening to kill them. By the end of the week both would have been scared senseless to the point where Mion would be able to break into their houses and beat them senseless.

The following morning someone tried to beat him up. The man did not succeed as Keichi was a bit more physically competent than he had been in the past. Mion was still infuriated, and managed to subdue the man and lock him with her relatives in the torture chamber.

The next day something similar happened. Mion didn't take much care to remember the details. The following day something similar might have happened. But Mion didn't care much for the details.

As Keichi had broken his pattern and he had accepted Rika as a more prominent part of his life.

But what about her? Hadn't she given up everything in order to ensure that Keichi would be protected? Had Rika really done anything at all?

Had he ever even noticed her there? Had she been ignored? Or was she in fact not the Mion Sonozaki that he had once cared for and as such he didn't care?

Perhaps it had all been some sort of a fluke. Perhaps she'd done terrible things for his sake out of love. Perhaps it was out of a twisted form of that love. They had all stopped Takano together. They had come so far and had managed to break away from a destiny they almost could not. But in the end, what awaited them was something far worse– themselves, and their regrets that carried them into the future. Those regrets had changed them all, and had led to who they were today.

All that Mion knew was that she did things for Keichi and received nothing in return. But without watching him part of her daily routine, she essentially could do nothing else. She had abandoned everything else at this point.

So she simply stopped waking up every morning. She was still alive, of course. Just not necessarily well.

* * *

><p>That is the end of the tale. Abbreviated, yes, but abbreviated for a reason. But I shall not end this tale's script quite just yet, for I have my own agenda to complete.<p>

Hello, greetings, good day, or whatever sort of greeting you prefer. I do not believe I need an exact introduction, since you're already well aware of who narrates this tale. But I must make a confession, as this is the last tale that will be presented in this form and as such the last and only chance I have to explain things for myself.

I am Hanyuu Furude, more commonly associated with this tale as its unreliable narrator. I am the real and legitimate Hanyuu Furude, as opposed to the various illusions that you may see throughout the story as a whole. While I in fact faced my own doom quite a long time ago, I can still exist in this realm–a place where the end result of the Hinamizawa Disaster was just that–a disaster, as opposed to a successful display of free will triumphing over fate. This is a damned world, but a world with its own user defined truth, as many such worlds are.

But before I begin with my confession, I must make the masses aware of those who were involved and my feelings towards them.

I must express my deepest apologies to the one whose sleep has been plagued with these messages of death. There is no real way I can atone for what I have done to you, but in the end I suppose that through these dreams you will find absolution.

I also must express my feelings towards the doctor who has presented these tales in a user friendly format. I thank you and condemn you at the same time. You are likely aware of the reasons why.

Despite my varied feelings towards either of you, I hope you find resolution of some sort in the times to come. But now, we must move on, for now I must explain the very nature of that which I have crafted for you all–the nature of these tales and their unreliable nature.

As I have already described _who _has narrated unreliably, the first topic is _how_ I have narrated unreliably. This in short can be described as such.

Throughout these tales you are given the emotional content of the various actors. You are given facts that they are aware of. You are given words that they spoke and given the motives for their actions. I have transposed these exactly from their source, but simply because they were written in these pages does not mean that they are true. In fact, they aren't. There are more lies and falsehood than truth. But the reality of Hinamizawa in this user defined fragment is hidden throughout. You simply must determine which realities contradict each other and which do not. In short, you must discern the beginning, middle, and possibly the end of the disaster as well from the remnants.

This is how I narrated unreliably. I have taken the truth, laced it with so many lies that you can only truly guess what the truth is based off of the most likely reality, and presented them as the truth.

The second topic is the last, and the most important–_why _I have narrated unreliably.

It is simply because I am a liar by nature. I was born a liar and I died a liar. I lie to survive, and as such I lied to be born as well. I lied to become a god amongst the children of men, I lied to Riku Furude, who I said I loved, and I lied to my beloved descendant. In this world I am simply taking my lies and giving them shape–that is how I can survive despite having died.

If the truth is covered in enough lies, and the truth is lost altogether, then the lies can serve as the truth. The truth about who and what I truly am has been lost to the moving of time. Therefore I can remain a god, a demon, or even a witch if I so choose to. That is the nature of my true power.

As a closing note, you cannot determine the truth off of these false facts and conjecture alone. In fact, you cannot determine the exact truth of the Hinamizawa in this story at all.

But does it matter when it pertains to the user defined truth? Because that can be reached. You just have to think enough about it. That's all there is to it.

But I'll give you a hint. Throughout this story there has been one single, unifying theme in everything that I have written. It is one of the themes of the fragment that did not end in failure as well. That is your single guide.

That is all.

I am Hanyuu Furude. I bid you all farewell.

But remember, as I am a liar by nature, that you cannot trust a single word of what I've said.

Even those words I've just spoken.

And those words.

And those.

* * *

><p><em>Everyone Lives Chapter Result:<br>_Sonozaki Mion – Alive.  
>Sonozaki Shion – Alive.<br>Ryuugu Rena – Alive.  
>Maebara Keichi – Alive.<br>Furude Rika – Alive.  
>Furude Hanyuu – Wondering if all the pointless details make it too easy.<p> 


	18. Bio Study Observation 11

**Bio-Study-Observation 11 : Subject ACER-0138234691**

Every time I look behind me there's always something different there. I've been trying for so long to stay ahead of the game – to make sure that this hellish time doesn't catch up with me and overwhelm me. But I've found that being so far ahead I can't seem to keep track of what's been passing by.

This is more or less a recollection of what has gone on and what is happening right now. I've found myself trying to analyze End Dreamer's dreams more and more that I can't keep up with everything else, no matter how far ahead I am. But now I have the opportunity to do this, and so I'm going to wrap things up right now. I won't submit any reports after this one – this is my last one.

End Dreamer and Saika –There's no doubt in my mind that they're in love. There's little doubt in my mind that Saika hadn't been attracted to him from the start. As for what reason I have no dam idea and I'm never really going to. But all I know is that they're both likely hiding something from me. At this stage of the game I know whatever they've been hiding is really important, but I just don't care anymore.

I've lost more things than I can shake a stick at. Aria? Dead. Mido? Long dead. The rest of my staff has either gone insane with the syndrome or have quit.

Ah, did I forget to mention? I'm sure you're probably aware at this point, but the syndrome is starting to spread. People everywhere, even those who were never involved, are suffering from that syndrome. The people are dying, my friends have all died, and I'm only left because I'm too inhuman to suffer from something like that. The incidents in the village have reached a cult standing unlike anything we've ever seen before. The Watchers? They were just the start. Their deaths in that village rekindled interest in Hinamizawa. And because of it the public has gone mad. I'm not even fully sure what's going on there, but I do know that it's all going to culminate in something terrible.

I've been dealing with this case my entire career, as far as I'm concerned. I don't even remember who or what I was before this. But in the end, I suppose that it's only fitting that I end up dead for the same thing I spent so much time living for.

I can die now, and I'd be content. But I can't die. I'm too inhumane for that sort of thing. No, I have to keep on going, well past everyone else. There's no rhyme or reason to it, but I simply have to keep on going. I don't want to, but I must. That's part of my existence here, as a part of this tale.

Things are coming to an end. I can certainly tell. Will things get any less violent? Hell no. In fact, I'm so sure of it that I'd


	19. IV: Broken Mirror Chapter

**Broken Mirror Chapter**

_be willing to wager my entire salary on it. Yeah, my salary. In the end I guess it all comes down to whether or not the people involved are as crazy as they seem. I mean, I know the whole syndrome is simply a reclusive psychological process, but how can it spread to this degree? I can only hope at this point I don't hit with it myself, but I've braved through worse in the last few months. But really, I'm really just going to pray it all ends in a way where the fewest number of people get screwed over. _

_I really can't bring myself to write any more of these reports. I'm personally involved now, and spewing all of this religious bullshit can only get me fired. I'm sorry I won't be able to tell you all how things are going to end like this- but you'll certainly know, my tasteless upper staff. _

_Since it's going to involve all of us before too long._

_I'll end like this, I suppose. If I do indeed die at some point, please, make these documents public. Certainly there must be someone out there that will hold interest in this sad little tale of mine. _

_That is, if this whole story doesn't weave an even worse one._

…_Oh, am I still in character? Pardon me.  
><em>_Call me whatever you wish- be it the Satirical Doctor or even the Lord of the Flies. It matters not.  
><em>_It is just one truth of many.  
><em>_But it is all pivotal to the truth you seek in this tale- the user defined truth. A truth that I myself am about to reach.  
><em>_As is this tale I am about to unfold to you almost directly._

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_**Pivotal Characters (perspective gets the bold)  
><strong>_Dr. Saturn Anne (Details Redacted)  
><strong>The End Dreamer<strong> (Details Redacted)  
>Nurse Saika Amagi (Age Not Given, Hair Brown, Eyes Brown)<br>Tohya Hachijo (Age 27)

_The situation is unknown to the narrator of this tale, and so it will not be described._

* * *

><p>Introductions? If I were to give an introduction it would defeat the purpose of this story I am about to tell. I am simply no one. I was born as no one, and I am currently no one. The real story is about the person I used to be, but I have no right to introduce him. Instead, the tale I am going to weave for you should serve as more of an introduction than I could ever formally give.<p>

But even though I am no one, the fact remains that I am still some_thing_- a thing that might as well be its own person but cannot recognize itself as such.

But for the sake of identification I have to at least tell you what I am. I am the person or thing you've heard so much about- the End Dreamer. That is all I can introduce _my_self as. There really isn't any other way to describe myself. Anyhow, this is where my own perspective on things will finally be revealed to you all. This is my side of this bitter tale.

There is, of course, the origin of the rather satirical name I've been given, as imposed onto me by that satirical doctor. I do indeed dream, as you likely know at this point – but they are not simply dreams in themselves. They are rather distasteful dreams- painful, hateful dreams. More and more dreams of the same thing, like a looping videotape with small modifications to the footage being made every time. Dreams of that place, twelve years ago, and even earlier on than that. Dreams of those people- those children from twelve years ago. Children I knew. Children I was close to. Every scenario is different. But they all end the same way. Witches, Youkai, illusions, reality- no matter what the story involves, it all ends the same way. They all die, even if years and years go on and they can live their lives peacefully.

Dreams, all dreams, but most importantly dreams I have no control over. Dreams for the sake of dreaming- dreams that reveal more and more of the twisted past those poor children had. They were all simply children, yet their deaths were guaranteed in so many different ways.

They all died, all of them, along with their loved ones and lovers, even – all of them except for me. I was the only one who made it out, or so I was made to believe. But who was I? Who was it that this body used to belong to?

Whose memories- whose past made up these dreams- dreams of a person that I simply wasn't?

Who am I – who was I? Whose dreams could these possibly be?

Does it really matter who I was? Doesn't it only matter who I am now? Are these dreams just my dreams to begin with?

But that really doesn't matter - I'm no one now. I'm just the dreamer of the end – the end of those people and ultimately the end of myself as well. As I am now I'm simply nobody. I can't be anyone, as long as I continue to exist this way – destined to dream of my death and the death of many. No matter how many times she tells me otherwise I can't bring myself to believe her- the only person I can fully trust.

And in the end I don't want to be anyone either. I just want those dreams of the end to simply end. I don't wish to waste away this way any longer. If I can never become a person then so be it, but I just want this cycle to end. Is that too much to ask for? Was the man I once was worthy of such internal scorn that his past is sinful enough to curse this shell of his in the aftermath? Was he truly such a cruel and demonic person that I deserved this pain purely by blood-rite?

Regardless of what once was I am simply what I am now- a decaying shell of a man, condemned by another's past, forced to listen to the cicadas and their endless cry of death. In all honesty, I don't even know what being someone is even like. I might as well go on being no one.

I began to wonder a long time ago- why did I survive? Why am I as I am now? How could I have survived such a disaster as the one that befell that village? Why did I, the amnesiac remnant of an ignorant fool have to survive, shouldering the guilt and the suffering that followed him?

But more immediately, why doesn't it even end when I wake?

Why am I plagued by memories of those two jade demons? Why is it that my heart becomes so heavy at the mention of those two, or even the name _Sonozaki_? What did this man do to them- or what did they do to him?

All questions. All questions with no answers. And I was beginning to fear that they would never have answers.

Time passed. I remained in that hospital, under the careful watch of that satirical doctor. But with a name such as Saturn Anne, one would wonder why he never pokes fun at his own name. Regardless, the doctor was certain a great help to my overall recuperation. He never brought any point of concern to my attention even though I knew there certainly were many, nor did he ever outright shun me as some of the other medical staff had. The man as a good soul – although chances are there's more to him than I would ever know.

My physical condition improved in small intervals at a time. I went from requiring twenty hours of sleep to fifteen and from there to twelve hours and so on and so forth. My body still, however, could not produce slightly more basic motor skills as properly as it was supposed to. As far as walking was concerned, I could somewhat wobble across the room, but even though my brain knew how to walk properly and my body was undamaged, it still posed a serious problem. As time passed, with a few rare visits from the doctor over a period of a few weeks, I felt more immediate memories returning to me as well.

Eventually, it came to the point where my dreams focused less on the Sonozaki demons and more on the village as a whole. As I continued to dream, I tried to piece together the truth.

But then I had that dream- the one where the identity of the person behind it all was revealed to me. The following morning I found out that I had gone into cardiac arrest overnight. I wasn't all that surprised.

That night- I discovered the truth. I knew the solution to the mystery the public had yet to solve. But that wasn't all I knew.

I knew more than just that- I knew so much more than just that.

The following night, I had a final dream- a dream that tied the rest of them together.

I knew - I knew who I was. I knew who I used to be. I knew his face, his likeness. When I saw myself in the mirror I could no longer see me, whatever I was - I could only see him. Whenever I looked in that mirror I saw his face. A face ridden with guilt and shame. A face filled with spite and sorrow- a face that was not all that different from mine.

I realized that we were not all that different after all. Perhaps I had been someone all along. Someone who could easily pass as nobody at all.

And I cried for the first time.

I knew who I was, but I did not know anything about me. We were so fundamentally different, yet so similar in nature. I knew so much, but I understood so little it was infuriating.

But I couldn't tell a soul about any of it. No one else should know- it would be better that way.

I couldn't even tell her - that woman who I had entrusted my future - and my past - to without a single thought because of how much I love her.

But enough about what brought me to this present day. Now, it is time for the bitter climax to my story.

Even though I knew who I once was I am still no one, as he was likely no one to begin with. But it turned out that despite that fact there was still reason for my continued existence. But what my purpose in everything was remained a mystery to me- that is, until now.

The morning began like any other. I awoke in that bed as I normally would. I turn to my side to find the satirical doctor sitting there, filling out some form or something of the like.

"What're you up to this morning?"

He turns to me and smiles. In all reality, it's more like an evil grin than a smile, but that was how his smiles were. "Ah, nothing much. I'm just filling this out. Beats working on it later."

"Aren't you supposed to be monitoring my condition?"

"Who says I can't take care of paperwork at the same time?"

"Ah, there's a good point." It was as if we were just close friends. That was how our banter seemed to work out.

"…Tell me something, End Dreamer."

"What do you want to know?"

His face darkens ever so slightly. "Have you ever thought about what it's like to lose something important to you?"

"Well, of course I have. Isn't that part of the reason why I'm here?"

"So yes, then. But what do you _feel_? Do you feel sad? Angry? Perhaps a bit of both?"

"Ah, I see. I really can't answer that question so readily."

"I understand. But I'd like to know some time, alright?"

"Okay. I'll get back to you on that."

He then stood to leave. He left the room rather quickly with his stack of papers in hand without another word. He was in an odd mood. He was usually a bit more lighthearted than that.

I turn my head again, this time to face the ceiling. If my internal clock was right, it would be about an hour or so before Saika came to check on me.

I could feel things were becoming more and more dire outside this room. The doctor tried to hide it as best as he could, but I have a strange knack for reading people's expressions. It's likely that this incident that we're all involved in has taken a turn for the worst in the outside world. I can only hope things will end well for them, but in the meantime I have my own issues to deal with.

It's only going to be a matter of time before Saika finds out about my restored memories. It'll only be a short while before I won't be able to hide it from her anymore. Every day since I regained them my memories seem to be wearing down on my mind. In fact, it's getting to the point where I may fall asleep and wake up tomorrow as a different person entirely. It's all just a matter of when this person inside of me is recognized by anyone else. If even a single person recognizes me as that boy, then the 'me' who exists in this body right now won't be able to coexist with him anymore.

But then again, wouldn't that be for the best? Does the End Dreamer have any reason to exist other than to keep this body alive?

This is the inner conflict I've gone through almost every day for the last two weeks or so. Each time I come closer and closer to giving into the memory of the boy. I know it's all just a matter of time.

As usual, as I'm contemplating all of it Saika shows up in my doorway when I least expect it. I always lose track of time like this, although in the end I suppose that losing track of time is a good thing for someone in a situation like mine.

She enters the room rather quietly as she tends to. She always acts as if I'm asleep when I first enter the room – simply because for quite some time I _was _asleep whenever she entered the room. In fact, I never even knew she existed until I happened to be awake when she entered. Nowadays, she simply does so out of habit.

She gives me her usual warm smile as she sits in the chair directly next to my bedside, unlike Dr. Anne who tends to sit near the table on the opposite end of the room. She says something, but the words coming out of her mouth are so repetitive at this point that I don't even listen to them much anymore. Eventually, once she finds it fit to speak, she begins our normal conversation – the only part of this routine that I'm not sick and tired of.

"Have you been feeling any better?"

"Didn't you ask me that yesterday? I doubt that I'd change any significantly overnight."

"I have to make sure, you know."

"But you _don't_ have to make sure. The day I suddenly can walk normally again I'll tell you the second you walk in."

"Didn't you give me the same argument yesterday?"

"It's your own fault."

It really isn't all that funny, but she laughs regardless. Her face wasn't as grim as it had been the last several days. It seemed she was finally recovering from whatever mental trauma had been plaguing her. I for one couldn't be happier.

"…At least take better care of yourself. You can't spend all of your time worrying about me."

She lightly touches my arm. "I'm fine. Can't you tell? I'm sure you can. You've been spot on with reading me before."

"True. You do seem better to me. Very well then, you're off the hook for the time being." I gave a very doctor like response which she awarded with another laugh.

The very emotional damage she'd gone through happened to be the motivator that ended up getting me to kiss her for the first time. It was a rather corny scenario, but in the end it did more good than I ever expected it to. Saika needed to smile – a hell of a lot more than I needed to. I was afraid she'd lose herself if she shut out her positive and upbeat nature, which was why I ended up helping her recover more than she was helping _me _recover. I wouldn't have it any other way, though.

"Did you have any more dreams?" Ah, cutting right to the chase. She never wasted time getting her job done.

"…I did, in fact." It was still incredibly vivid, so I didn't have much issue recalling what had happened in it. "It was a bit different from the last few. It focused on three of the children instead of just one…And another person, although I can't really remember their name all that well."

"Which three?"

"Maebara, Ryuugu, and Sonozaki."

"I see…So what happened? Did they all…die again?"

"Actually…It was quite the opposite."

"They all survived?" She seemed genuinely interested in this one. In the past she had only really taken interest in the dreams that didn't involve the children from 1983 – the ones that I could recall the least amount of details from, in fact – but this time she seemed more interested in the fact that they all had survived the incident.

"It wasn't all that pleasant anyhow, but they all survived. There wasn't a single death that year. The curse of Oyashiro wasn't ever resolved, though. That led to village-wide panic, and they all just became lost in themselves."

"How horrifying…"

"Nothing seems to end well, especially for those children."

"So it would seem."

"…But I just don't know."

"Know what?"

"_Why, _Saika. I just don't know why it has to be them. I don't know why they were the only ones who had to suffer to that degree. It was just those families and those children that were put through all the torture. Sure, the whole village was massacred in the end, but those children still had it the worst."

"There can be many reasons for something like that. We just don't know for certain. That's all. But if you remember things about your past, then maybe we'll finally know."

"But what if my memories _don't _just magically let me in on everything?" This was more or less my way of saying _my memories don't answer that question. _

"Why wouldn't they? Certainly, you'd know _something_, even if something almost insignificant."

Oh, how close she was. Indeed, I knew something – something terrible. I knew two thirds of the solution to this mystery of mine. I knew the who and the how – but not the why.

"We can't be so sure about that."

"But we can't be so skeptical of it either, right? Just keep hoping. That's all it'll take."

Just keep on hoping? Was that really the kind of thing she was trying to keep me fighting for something I already had and knew the significance of? No amount of hope could ever have amounted to that and have been considered proof of some sort of miracle. In fact, I would've been "hoping" the entire time that I _wouldn't _have gotten those memories back.

_Oh, what a fool he was. That man who used this body before me…_

I sighed, admitting defeat in the argument. I had to back out, unless I felt like blowing my cover entirely. I wasn't mentally ready to tell her yet.

She embraces me for some reason. I wasn't entirely expecting it, but my body was used to it at this point that it didn't come as a complete surprise.

"Ah, I'm sorry. I keep making demands. It'll be fine either way, really. Memories or no memories, you're still here, right?"

"I might as well not be here."

"Nonsense. I'm here, and I know you're here. Isn't that more than enough?"

She did have a point. It made sense, especially in the context of that dream I had.

_Right. Saika is here, therefore I am._

It made sense. It certainly did.

I could exist as a person, as long as she was here. There was no medicine or any sort of conditions involved, but essentially it amounted to the same thing. She was here, while no one else was. I could be me as long as she was here.

But could that stop _him _from suddenly wanting to be himself again? If I kept it concealed, then perhaps he would remain at bay.

Every conversation I've had with Saika since regaining my memories ended up in this line of thought. I could be someone, even though I had once never wanted to be anyone. I had the chance – and that chance to be someone to someone and ultimately _for_ someone was intoxicating.

But if I ever recognized myself as that person – if Saika were ever to see me as a part of that person – then I might as well have become that person.

The duration of Saika's stay is relatively carried out in silence. She didn't find any real point in saying anything, but for some odd reason she seemed to be scrutinizing my expression with a lot more intensity than usual. I didn't thing all that much of it, but eventually she said something out of the blue at some point just before it was time for her to leave.

"If you're ever afraid to tell me something, don't be. Okay?"

I simply nod. I was afraid that my voice would give something away if I suddenly voiced my reaction to what she'd said. She likely knew I was hiding something. I just had to hope she didn't have any clue what I was hiding.

The rest of the day is uneventful as usual. In fact, I find myself falling asleep relatively early into the day.

But almost as if my inner turmoil had finally managed to escape to the surface, I found myself dreaming – not of the normal dreams that I was already used to having, but one entirely different. This dream was not a dream that took place in Hinamizawa. It was not a dream that involved those people in 1983 – or perhaps it did, but this dream was only of _him._

And I was physically part of this dream.

He stood before me, his face as pale white as it could possibly be. He wore that same empty expression that he always gave whenever I looked in that mirror.

We were both standing in what seemed to be a void of some sort. There was nothing of note, sans the strange glow in the purple haze around us. It was an extremely odd sight, but the sight of him was far worse.

I took a single step forward, and in that instant. He smiled. His eyes were still weak, but his mouth seemed to twist into a smile.

"You're here." He spoke. His voice was identical to my own. It made sense – after all, we're the same person.

But I'm not him, am I? He isn't me, either. But he wants to be himself again, doesn't he? He wants to be ******* ******* on the outside again, doesn't he?

"…Can I, please…Go back?"

"…And what of me?" I ask. I feared that my voice had faltered, but it seemed that he had managed to hear what I said.

"Does it matter? You're no one. You've never been anyone, right? So it's fine if I go back now."

"I'm no one so…it's alright?"

I thought back to the events of earlier in the day.

No, I'm someone. I'm certain someone. That dream helped me realize it.

Saika is there, therefore I am.

I thought even further back – the doctor's question.

_Have you ever thought what it's like to lose something important to you?_

Yes, I have. It's terrifying. I feel nothing but fear. I don't want to lose what I have.

In that moment I realize that I don't care anymore. Dreams or no dreams – I've become someone. I don't want to lose that, no matter what I have to do. I didn't understand why. We were so similar, but we couldn't coexist at the same time. And I knew that _he _would not relent without a fight.

"I'm sad. I really am." He starts grabbing at the air, only for a large sword – likely a katana – to suddenly appear within his grasp. "I didn't want to hurt you. But I'll become me again."

"No...No, I won't let you…!" I almost gain some resolve in my voice, but as he approaches with that blade I realize how futile it all is. He was stronger than I was, after all.

He can kill. He's probably done it before.

But I don't even have a weapon. I can't kill, no matter what. I can't even walk straight. My arms work perfectly fine so I suppose that I could at least deal some damage if I ever even had the chance to, but as I was now – that really wasn't all that likely. Even if I were sound in body, would I really be sound enough in mind to raise a sword against him? Certainly, such a thing was impossible.

But certainly, I was capable of using something. Some sort of blunt object –

And then it hit me. And suddenly the baseball bat I'd instinctively been searching for appeared within my grasp.

A baseball bat. Used in conjunction with a ball, it would bring joy to people of all ages in all parts of the world. But just as it was as innocent an object as those who used it as such, the bat was just as deadly a weapon as those who used it as such. There were those who used it as an extension of their happiness, and those who used it as an extension of their despair. This bat – this bat was certainly _his _bat. The bat that those two used as the cycle of death had deemed it necessary.

And so I decided –I would choose to be part of the latter of the two. I would swing the bat, and use it to kill. With some hope I'd be able to kill him before he kills me.

He takes a single step forward before spontaneously breaking out into a sprint. I know he'll get the first and likely fatal blow, but I'm prepared to strike back if fate twists this fight that way. We fight. Or more precisely I thought we were fighting. Simply put, my mind simply shut off. Everything went black in that single instant.

I bolt upward, having been woken from the dream. I was sweating profusely, although I was surprised that I was only sweating profusely. Having been directly threatened in my subconscious should've at least sent me into a lasting coma. I sigh, turning over to rest on my side. I wouldn't go back to sleep, I decide. Doing so would mean I'd be trapped with him again. I didn't know what that meant, in all honesty. All I could remember was lifting the bat, moving forward and then simply blacking out.

I start shivering. Ah, there's the state of shock I was waiting for. It wasn't as bad as I'd anticipated, but it still felt horrible. I'd nearly died within my own dream –and in all likelihood had I died I would've have woken up. I feared for the worst – if I went back to sleep, would he still be waiting for me? Would that man try to kill me again? Would I ever be safe if I went back to sleep?

I felt a fear that was greater than any other emotion I'd ever felt. I felt afraid –afraid for my life, afraid for the memories I'd made and the identity that I had tried so hard to create. I knew I would die if I went back to sleep, and so I simply didn't sleep.

If I lost what little I had I would have no idea what I would do. Surely, I only existed to preserve this body. But_ I _didn't want to exist like that. If I could somehow stop him –If I could somehow escape from that, then perhaps I could become myself. But there was no way. I simply couldn't just shut him out the way I wanted to. His repressed existence was simply far too strong. The twelve years worth of pure hatred that built up within him was far too powerful to even attempt to repress.

And so I didn't go back to sleep. I simply stayed awake until Dr. Anne came in the following morning. Whether or not this would turn into a severe case of insomnia overtime wasn't really something I was concerned about at the moment. The fact that I was actively at risk of dying was far more important. I'd easily drive myself insane in the process but in the end I suppose that being alive and insane is better than just being plainly dead.

Dr. Anne enters the room at the exact same moment he did so yesterday. His routine is rather constant, and therefore mine is as well. I suppose that this man's recognition of me as a person also contributes to the identity that I want to hold on to. After all, I am part of this man's routine, as he is part of mine.

"…Doctor Anne?"

"Yes?"

"…I want to talk about that question you asked me the other day."

"Ah, I see. So do you have an answer?"

"Yes…I certainly feel terrified. But I'm not really sure what it is I'm afraid of." I had to lace my answer with lies. If I even so much as hinted towards having regained my memories – well, I suppose I don't need to explain what would happen.

"Fear, huh?" He closed his eyes for a moment and nodded. "…That sounds about right."

"Excuse me?" Had I given him an answer he wanted to hear?

"Oh, nothing. Just mumbling to myself. Anyhow, it's good to know you have that straightened out."

"How so?"

"Well, if you're afraid of losing something, then shouldn't the other you feel the same way?"

"The same way…? " It actually hadn't occurred to me before.

This body belonged to someone who I have previously stated was not all that different from myself. That person certainly knew what it felt like to lose something important to them – in fact, they likely lost everything they ever had.

If I am afraid of losing my body – and if I was willing to fight to retain it – then what indicates that he is any different?

"…Oh, I see." I nod my head in understanding. "…I never thought of it that way before."

"So you get it then? Good. All you need to do is think on that for awhile. You know how it works. Maybe you'll have a dream or two about it. It's a depressing topic, but then again your dreams aren't ever sunshine and rainbows, now are they?"

I almost laugh at that. It was certainly true that my dreams reflected my state of mind to a certain degree. That was why many of the earlier dreams seemed to focus on the two Sonozaki twins, given how by ability to recollect them dug up ridiculous amounts of mental trauma that I hadn't even realized were there. In this case, perhaps dreaming with a more sympathetic view on the other owner of this body would make things easier to deal with. But there was still the chance he would attempt to take over again.

But if I decided to try and understand him, then perhaps things would be different. It was certainly worth a chance. I'd rather go insane than die, but perhaps there was the chance that I would be able to dodge both fates entirely.

Doctor Anne didn't spend much more time observing me that day. He seemed to be in a bit of a hurry, but his face normally would never show it. Today however, his expression was far more distressed than it had ever been. Something terrible must have happened in the outside world – and I couldn't shake the feeling that it had something to do with me.

Saika arrived relatively on time again today. She was a bit more prone to arriving slightly off her schedule, but it wasn't as if she could be perfect all the time like Doctor Anne. She gave me her usual greeting before we sat in silence.

Every day now, I feel as if she's changing more and more. Sure, she was smiling at the ready yesterday, but today that smile seems so much more fake. I've been wondering if her improving mood was just a mask she wore to keep me from worrying.

Here I am, in love with this woman. But I can't trust her in the slightest. Perhaps it was because I had secrets of my own. But still, I had to know what was wrong with her. I made it my purpose to know.

It starts off as normal. I ask her if she's alright and she answers by asking me if I'm alright. It goes on like that, as it seems to go on every day. It all seems too artificial to be real. I figure I'd ask her something slightly more personal, so I could potentially gather up enough information to figure out what's her issue without her directly telling me. The problem is, however, that I have no idea what to ask her. But eventually I go with the question that's the freshest in my mind.

"Saika, there's something I need to know."

"Hm?"

"What does it feel like when you lose something important to you?"

She almost hesitated to answer. "Well…I really can't tell you."

"You mean you've never lost something before?"

"…It isn't that." Her gaze darkens as she stares off over my shoulder, avoiding all eye contact. "It's just I don't remember what it's like."

"Really…Uh, I'm sorry if I overstepped my boundaries there."

She smiles at me, shaking her head. "It's not that big a deal. You've already told me everything you know about yourself. I'm just afraid I haven't done the same for you."

I was about to change the subject as she suddenly blurts out something else.

"It's just that I don't feel anything. Because I already lost everything such a long time ago."

I lose my voice. I hadn't expected asking a question like that would produce such a vivid response. But more importantly –

"That's not true. That can't be true."

Her eyes widen slightly, now slightly less glazed over.

"…You can't possibly have lost everything."

"…Ah, that's right. I still have you, don't I?" At this point she was on the verge of tears.

I began to wonder. Had I been someone at all? Had I ever been anything more than a parasite to leech off of others? Doesn't something like love involve mutual exchange? Surely, she could mean something to me, but then did I mean anything to her, given how there was no mutual exchange?

Was there any reason to my being if all I did was simply exist? Was there any reason for me to be here if I didn't _do_ something? But what the hell can I do?

I could comfort her. I could damn well do that. I've been walking over a mine field this entire time and no matter how many I tripped I didn't seem to care for the damage I did.

I was a person once and only once – and it was the last time something like this happened. What was it that I did? Oh, yes. That was what I did.

Without so much as another solitary thought I kiss her, hopefully leaving enough of an impact that she would stop crying profusely. I found that my efforts were not in vain when she began to kiss back.

Saika meant the whole world to me. I had hoped it would work both ways. But I had done so very little, while she was here every day, always prepared to listen to my monologues that pretty much amounted to little more than self pity.

Was I so worried about dying? Well if I kept on living that way then there would be so little difference it wouldn't matter. I could do so little, but I could still _do_.

She broke off for a moment, perhaps to refill her lungs, but in a matter of moments she had already placed her lips on mine again. It was a rather long and tender moment, but eventually she broke off again and at that point moved slightly further away.

"…I'm sorry." She speaks.

"What are you apologizing for?" I feel like I've heard someone say that a thousand times.

"I still haven't told you everything, have I?"

"What do you mean?"

"I've told you so very little about myself. It's rather selfish, taking so much but giving nothing back." Why was she pinning herself with the blame that fell on me?

"That isn't true. I'm the one who's been doing that."

"It doesn't matter what you've been hiding. I've still told you so little."

She hangs her head. "It's maddening. Being in love with someone but being so afraid to tell them the truth."

We had our secrets. But no matter what our feelings were, could we really risk giving ourselves fully to each other – something that was impossible to do while our secrets remained intact?

I embrace her almost instinctively. "I feel the exact same way."

* * *

><p>It has come to the point where I can't delay things any longer. I've already established, both in this world and in the dream that I simply can't love someone else with such massive chains weighing me down. If I am to love Saika, and therefore exist, I must reveal my secret. But in the end that could lead to my destruction as an individual. But judging from what Doctor Anne had told me, it was very possible that I could come to a resolution with him.<p>

I could not truly become someone unless I became one with him. That was the truth of it all.

But I was still so afraid. I had no way of knowing if doing so would ever work. I was still so afraid of losing everything, but in the end I would lose everything if I hesitated. But was I willing to keep what I had in the end anyway, given what it would entail?

I sigh. There's no denying how much of a coward I am.

I hear the door slide open. I wasn't expecting anyone at this hour, although I didn't exactly know what time it was since I couldn't bring myself to move.

In the doorway was a relatively middle aged man with what seemed to be grey hair in a wheelchair and a woman with long violet hair standing behind him, presumably pushing the wheelchair. Both of them appear to be very grim. The woman's expression is rather vacant, while the man seems more melancholic than anything else. The man moves on his own to a certain degree and approaches me. This man was the only person to do so aside from the doctor or Saika. The one inconsistency was the fact that he was here, that he was likely looking for me, while I essentially didn't exist in any form outside of this room sans for the doctor's reports. I was beginning to wonder if he was real or not.

He sighs himself.

"It's horrifying, isn't it?" His gaze is rather melancholic. It's strange, since I've never seen this man before, yet it seems he already knows me so well. "Being cornered in the thoughts of someone who you aren't? Trying to move on but being weighed down by a past you had no control over?"

My eyes widen. How could this man possibly know so much – this man who had seemingly appeared out of nowhere?

"Believe me. You don't want to keep it hidden any longer. If you want to move on you have no choice. You must make amends, and quickly."

"…But…I…" my voice is too lethargic to make a coherent sentence.

"If you don't, you'll drive yourself insane. You must accept him as part of you. If you don't, you won't be able to keep existing at all."

"B-But if he… If I tell her…"

"There's something you need to understand about love. Love is essentially giving someone the power to destroy you and everything about you. But you trust them enough not to. People can be destroyed by love. People can be brought to kill others out of love, even. But if you love someone, you risk that. It's not really all that simple, but that's the best way to put it… I for one learned that fact six years too late. But it's not too late for you."

"…It's not too late?"

"No, certainly not. You have the chance that I didn't.

"Tohya. We need to leave. Someone will come if we don't get out of here now." The woman behind him spoke.

Before I can speak again, he wheels in the opposite direction.

"…I'm sorry, I've spent all my time here. Just know you're not the only one."

And with that, he leaves the room with the woman behind him disappearing all the same. They both vanished as quickly as they had appeared. I expected to see them moving away from the room through the small window, but it seemed they were both still standing outside the door. But after enough time had passed I realized that they simply had vanished altogether.

Certainly, that was nothing but a hallucination. I had probably just made some man up to help cope with my situation. But still, what that imaginary man had said was certainly true.

I considered what he had said. If it was still possible, then perhaps I could do it. But how could I just trust the words of some strange person who I had simply thought up out of nowhere? How could I trust myself like that, if in the end I'm ultimately battling with myself?

But it was all certainly true. Given the dream I had just had, it all seemed to make more sense. I had to admit to his existence, and perhaps find the two of us would find completion in that. Would I lose myself? It was certainly possible. But if repressing him led to something like that dream I'd rather risk dying than living in such a way.

I knew for certain. I loved Saika. I was willing to give her the power to literally destroy me, and in turn she would give me the same thing – or perhaps not. But that was what love entitled. And if the other loves you back then they will do the same. That is how love can maintain itself.

It made sense. I was willing to bet everything on it. And so I would proceed into my subconscious and wage war with my other self.

That was simply it. The only way I could tell if it would work would simply be to sleep, and by doing so risk never waking up as the same person the next morning. It would be fairly easy, considering how I hadn't slept much at all last night. I try not to concentrate on anything else aside from what the doctor told me to.

When sleep finally reclaims me, I'm treated to the same scenery from before – the dark void that seemed to stretch on into infinity and the man in question standing in front of me.

"You're back…Care to continue where we left off, or are you going to submit?" His voice was as cold as it had been the last time.

"Wait, no, I don't want to fight you."

"So then you submit?"

"No, please, I just want to figure out if there's a way that we can work this out."

"What do you mean?"

"I want to know if there's a way that we can co-exist together. Certainly, we don't have to kill each other. There must be a way that we can be one and the same."

"Impossible." He nearly snarled.

"How so? Aren't we already similar in so many ways?"

"So you might say, but there's one difference. There's only one woman in this world-"

"But isn't she already dead? Didn't you lose everything? Just as _she _did?"

"…"

"What is there for you to go back to? Can we just live in this – in this new life of ours?"

"You don't understand. There is no such thing. We're still destined to die in the end."

"Then why live in despair? Can't you already see what that's done to me? Can you really live like that? Wouldn't it be better to accept this new life, even if just for a short time, so we can be someone again?"

"Quiet!" He draws the katana again, but I won't give him the opportunity to attack me. "There is no _we_ in this – there's only one or the other!"

What he was saying was something I used to believe – but just from the fact that we both thought the same way was evidence enough that it wasn't so true anymore.

"Face it – we're one and the same. I can deny it all I want and you can deny it all _you _want. But we can't change the fact that I'm you and you're me."

"Why are you so damn sure we're so similar?"

"Because I feel everything you feel! You're so tormented on the inside and I can feel every bit of it! I want to let go – just like you want to let go! You have to understand that we have nothing to go back to – _nothing._ Nothing aside from her. You have to abandon the past, because it'll destroy you just as it'll destroy me."

"That isn't true. That simply isn't true… We both know, it isn't over yet…!"

"It doesn't matter what is happening now. We have to accept the truth. We lost everything, and now it's coming back to haunt us. Sure, we might die in the end, but we can't die in that sort of way. We have to live on – and in the end maybe we can break the cycle of death. Maybe we can defeat fate, if we try hard enough."

He let out a loud howl. "No,no,no,no,no,no….No,no,no! You can't…You just can't you can't defeat fate it's impossible it's just impossible there's no way you can do it there's no way we can't stop it it's it's it's-"

He lets out another coarse scream and he falls to the ground, grasping his head in pain. I myself begin to see flashes – doubtlessly the same things he was seeing. It was all from our past. It was all from the past that we both had to regret.

"No, I can't do it I can't do it I can't I just can't I can't-"

"No, that isn't true!"

"Then explain it to me!" He screams. "How is it that an innocent little girl like _her _can spend _thousands of years_ trying to do it, dying thousands and thousands of times and still fail? It's _impossible_!"

"You can. It's possible. No matter how close to zero it is we have the chance. We can overcome fate – I know now it's possible. Because the only things that can govern life is life itself."

My fate might have been to die. But that was only because of the life my former self led all on his own. No matter the degree of his sins – it was his free will that led to part of what had happened. But it wasn't limited to him and him alone. The Hinamizawa Disaster – it happened because people were like me and by proxy him as well. They had regrets – regrets that weighed them down and drove many of them to the point of no return. Regrets of all shapes and sizes.

I chose to give myself to Saika. And I chose to essentially betray the mutuality of the bond I had made with her. And as a result she nearly broke because of it. I chose freely, even though it seemed I was just weighed down by regrets of someone who wasn't even me and forced into making a decision. But it was my free will that led to it happening.

It was not fate that brought about the disaster. It was the will of that woman, tarnished as it was. It was the will of those children that led to circumstances that they could not control. Fate was never the cause– it was just the end result of a system of sin and punishment. Actions that were made freely led to consequences that, by acting in the first place, were allowed to happen. In the end people who had never even chosen were dragged into it – in other words, they were fated to die, but in the end their fate was brought about by the free will of others.

It was the free will of mankind and the imperfect nature of mankind as creatures that can feel. Fate and free will – one could not exist without the other, but that relation was not mutual. Free will could exist without fate, but not the other way around. It was by the will of mankind that this happened, even if not intentionally at first – but it will be by the will of mankind that it would all be brought to an end. That was what I believed. And that was what I had to convey to him no matter what.

"It's impossible! You can't stop something that already happened, no matter how hard you try! There's simply no way!"

"Then can't we simply stop something even worse from happening? Can't we try to live on? Can't we try to defy our fate of death? Can't we try to stop things in the outside world from getting worse? We still have the will to stop things, because they _haven't _happened!"

"And then what? What will we achieve? We stop things from happening, and then what?"

"And then we _live_. Isn't that why you wanted your body back in the first place? Didn't you just want to live?"

"I wanted by body back so I could die as myself, and nothing more."

If we both feared death so much, yet we were both willing to accept it, then where was the sense in this argument? Oh, but we were not both willing to accept it so easily. He wanted to die because he wanted to regain what he lost, while I wanted to live for what I had found. But I understood all of his emotions and all of his pain. Perhaps death was the best for us.

"But after everything that's happened – shouldn't we try to defeat the very thing that did this to us?"

"What could we possibly get out of defeating fate? We will die because of our past, and that's the reality."

"But we can defeat fate. We can do it with our free will. And we'll be able to redeem ourselves for our past. We can atone for our sin, and absolve us of our punishment. If we can do that, then death won't be so terrifying." I kept using the terms 'our' and 'we,' but we both knew I was mostly referring to him. I was not without sin, but his were greater. Despite that, it was his free will that I came to exist, and he was already trying to fight against that. "If you can keep on trying to reject me and take your body back, you're just trying to stop something that already happened. But in the outside world, the things we've set in motion haven't fully run their course yet."

"But it's not worth it…There is no risk to dying for the sake of dying. But what if we _can't_ stop it? What if we can't stop fate from taking control? What if we _fail_? What if we end up with the most likely of the two results?"

"But we have the chance! There's a possibility. Why can't we die for the sake of something other than death?"

"Because it's like you already said – we have _nothing_ to go back to. We are fighting for something that we have no reason to fight for. And no matter how hard we try to accept otherwise we'll still die no matter what and without anything to show for it. If we live just to die, then what was the point of trying to live again?"

"But you're wrong. We _do _have something."

"…"

I outstretch my hand, almost pleading him to walk over and take it. "We can redeem ourselves. We can make amends for the things we did. We can't change the past, but we can stop things from happening now. We can save the things we care about and redeem the things we cared about here and now. All we need to do is become one and the same. All we need to know is understand the who, how and why to their fullest extent. And I know you have the memories that I don't."

He remained silent.

"Please, I know we can make a difference. No matter how disabled we are, no matter how little time we have left – we can defeat our fate. We can die for our own reasons, not because of our past."

I wasn't sure how he did it, but he suddenly appeared a few inches away from me, with the katana at the ready. I was almost sure he would plunge the blade into me, but he suddenly dropped it.

He grasped my hand. "…Very well then. Know everything. Know everything that you never wished to know. Become me, and I'll become you. See if what shred of hope you're fighting for is worth what you're going to sacrifice."

There was a blinding flash of light.

And then I knew. I knew everything.

I knew everything that he had kept locked away and had been willing to defend to the bitter end. I knew all of his secrets. I could feel his emotions, but I could never understand _why_. I knew how he felt and what he felt, but I never knew why until now.

I understood everything about myself. I knew why he was so afraid to attempt defeat fate. I knew bits and pieces of his past from my dreams, but it was not until now that I knew it all.

My resolve still did not waver.

I would defeat fate. I would die for my own reasons and my own reasons alone. I could exist, because I was now whole, and with Saika as my witness I was able to exist as a true person. I had the free will to do so, and as a result I would do everything that this decrepit husk can do in order to maintain it.

* * *

><p>The following morning I still did not speak to Doctor Anne. I did not so much as address the previous night in any way. I didn't even mention my self-designed hallucination that acted as a sort of self examination.<p>

Saika entered the room relatively on time. I embraced her shortly after she entered.

"…Saika, I've decided."

"Decided what?"

"I'm going to tell you everything."

She was silent for a few moments. "Are you sure?"

"Yes. I'm going to give you everything I have left. Because I don't have anyone else to live for. And by doing so…I just hope you can do the same thing for me."

"…Of course I will. I'll do anything."

"Okay…So… Where do I begin…"

"…Wait, don't."

"Hm?"

"…I'll go first. I need to tell you everything first."

"…Are you sure?"

"Yes. After all, whatever you've been hiding must be so much more severe than what I'm going to tell you."

I nod my head slowly as Saika begins her story.

"I must first reintroduce myself… The name I've gone by for this period of time is not my real name. I am the only one in this hospital aware of it, and there isn't anyone tied to the situation outside who is aware either. At least not yet."

She takes a deep breath. This is likely the most difficult part of it all. But if she speaks the truth, then it will be proof that I have been given the power to destroy her. It will be proof of our love – a love without conditions otherwise.

"I am Natsumi Kimiyoshi." She let out a deep breath. "…That's the hardest part out of the way." She smiles slightly. My grip on her tightens slightly before I release her so she can continue in a more comfortable position.

"I'm probably not that much older than you are, but I wasn't directly involved with the Hinamizawa Disaster. Instead I was affected by it from the outside."

"The outside…But if you leave the village, then won't you be…well, cursed?"

"Indeed. My own troubles started up not that long after everything happened. My relatives became a tad bit too obsessed with the Oyashiro curse, but my grandmother especially managed to get me thinking about it too. In the end I was the one who ultimately became the most obsessed."

"And so…You came down with the Hinamizawa Syndrome?"

"Yes…I killed my grandmother and my parents, but in the end I was finally stopped. I almost killed someone far more important to me, however."

"Who was that?"

"Don't get mad, okay?" She smiles somewhat sadly before she continues. Her face contorts slightly as she speaks his name. "Akira Toudou. I had a bit of a crush on him, but eventually I ended up completely falling in love with him. But I nearly killed him because of the syndrome. Even afterward, he still wanted to marry me – to keep me safe from all of that. But in the end I abandoned him."

"Why?"

"Because he couldn't understand. He was loving and caring, but he couldn't understand that I was beyond saving. It got to the point where whenever I saw him I'd feel like part of me was going to die. I had wanted to be with him so terribly but I was forever confined to a hospital bed. His consistent visiting was slowly but steadily killing me. I forced him away from me to keep myself from going mad. That's what it came down to."

"…So then how did you end up here?" I tried to stay as indifferent to what she was saying until she was finished. I wasn't sure how long I could keep it up.

"After a few years I was deemed stable enough to finally leave the hospital. But at that point he'd already moved on. I'd forced him away and he abandoned me as I expected him to. But that woman he was with – he didn't treat her any differently than he had treated me. It was as if the way he had treated me was just superficial – that all the times he said he'd never abandon me was all just a front. He would just as readily say the same things to that woman. I was essentially no different – I was just treated the same way he would treat any woman. He'd completely tricked me into thinking he had really cared about me."

She re-adjusts her gaze so she was looking at me again. Her eyes seemed a bit glazed over, but nothing too terrible. "So I killed him. And to avoid suspicion I had the detective that covered the original incident and my own accident to forge an identity for me. That was when I stopped being Natsumi Kimiyoshi."

"…And so then you ended up here? Was that where your new life took you?"

"Yes. I ended up here, through a police officer I happened to be good friends with. All I had to do was change my appearance and it all worked out."

"So you overcame the syndrome…All on your own?"

"Yes. I came to a resolution myself. I killed the man I loved. That was how I did it. I'm just glad I'll never have to do it ever again."

I embrace her again. I don't need to see her face to know if she's crying or not.

That was her story. That was everything she had kept hidden. She had given up everything and entrusted it all to me – now I was finally prepared to do the same.

Was her past dark? Very much, yes.

Was my past even darker? A thousand times yes.

But I would still reveal it all, just as she had done for me.

"Alright, so now it's my turn." I whisper to her. "I'll tell you everything. And once I'm done…I need you to do something for me."

"Anything. I'll do anything."

"…Alone I can't do much, especially with this body. But you can, and I know you can. So once I'm done, I need to you do what I can't."

"I will. I'll do whatever you want."

"Okay…So here it goes."

I begin to tell my tale. My tale of twelve years ago. My tale of when the cicadas cried, and of the circumstances leading up to it and everything before and after. I begin to tell her everything. Because as Natsumi chose to give herself so someone else I would do much the same.

With her it was certainly possible. I could do it, as long as I wasn't alone.

I had the hope and the resolve. All I had to do was act. I could act through Natsumi, and so I would be able to battle with fate.

Where _she_ failed I would succeed. That was what I hoped for.

* * *

><p><em>Broken Mirror Chapter Result:<br>_Dr. Saturn Anne- His whereabouts are unknown  
>The End Dreamer – With resolve to succeed where Furude failed, he prepares for the finale<br>Natsumi Kimiyoshi – With a new purpose to live, she prepares for the finale  
>Tohya Hachijo – More than a mere illusion, but sadly not the man himself<p>

* * *

><p>And that's the end of that (no report at the end of this one). Solutions for the first three side stories will be released before Answer Chapter 1 (and a great deal before it at that). But first – the Wrap Party. That'll be loads of fun. That'll be up the same day I get the solutions up.<p>

Also, as for this chapter, I didn't feel like writing any more severe angst (since I'm a bit sick and tired of it), so this turned into the only chapter where no one died or ended up in some severe mental depression. Of course the chapter involves overcoming the depression, but it's about as non-angst coated as this story is going to get. I hope it didn't come out as too corny (because I _know _Rena's chunk of the last side story did, and it was partially intentional. More on that later).

But I assure you, the current cast is going to get picked off one by one in these last few chapters. It won't be pretty. Who will survive? I…Actually don't know since finishing off the story doesn't actually require certain characters (except one or two) living and dying and so I haven't planned that part out yet. I won't kill off someone just for the sake of doing it though, but it's still not going to be humane.

Also, in the event that you didn't read any of the manga chapters that Natsumi originated from, you don't need to worry about it all that much. Her description here is pretty much what happened (sans killing her husband).

Anyway, the next set of stuff will be out when it's finished. I have a bit more time on my hands in the coming weeks, so hopefully sooner rather than later.

UPDATE: Fixed several typos, probably still missed a few. Also, in the coming weeks it may become nessecary for me to change up my pen name (for reasons I'd take too long to go into). Just giving you the heads up. If it comes to that I'll be going into more detail in the future.


	20. Wrap Party

_**Author's Note**_

And here we go, with the crazy Wrap Party. Note that even though the Unreliable Narrator narrates this, most of it is, well, true. You'll get what I mean by that once the crazy supernatural things start happening.

But first, super long A/N to cover a few things.

First off, I no longer have a need to change my pen name. Hooray.

That aside, I suppose I should address my most recent reviewer Alaplaster (since I really need to start addressing people by name if I'm talking about more than one person and I'm not going to use that reply function because I _can't _use the reply function for a slew of inconvenient reasons).

As for the TV Tropes recommendation…Really, I'm sort of surprised that you and Repton (who I will refer to as Repton since it's the best way to shorten that name) found this story to be that good. I'm extremely thankful either way, though. Did it turn away potential readers? Not necessarily, mainly because your description was pretty much accurate.

Also I'm glad to notice you pointed out how I've been spelling Keiichi's name with one "I". As much as I'd like to pretend that it was just a typo, considering how I've done it pretty much throughout the entire story I might as well just say it's intentional. More on that later. Much, much, _much_ later.

As for your gripes with the first main chapter – I really can't comment on, like, any of it. Because I'd give away too much if I did. Ruins the surprise a bit that way. Although I can say that the first chapter has several more holes in it than in either of the other two. It's supposed to be that way. It'll come together at some point.

I'm also glad that Repton figured out who End Dreamer was. Now watch and be amazed (?) as I make the answer a whole lot more convoluted than necessary. Not necessarily this chapter, but soon. Very soon.

Okay, so here's this thing. If you've ever played the Higurashi VNs you'd commonly associate this sort of thing with a warm hearted and usually funny scenario where the characters joke about what happened in the games prior. I will say this now – that is not going to happen here. Not at all. The first subheading for this chapter will be indicative of that enough. In fact, if I weren't trying to relate this to the VNs I wouldn't even call it a party. Anyhow, moving on, I'm sadly not going to release the first set of answers with this chapter. However, it will be released with the first Answer Chapter. It would probably flow better that way.

* * *

><p><strong>Wrap Party <strong>

_It pains me to see you go, but at the end of the road I hope you'll have found out what it is that the ever so unreliable narrator is trying to tell you – that is unless that fool decides to spell it out for you in bold print. Regardless, I'm certain you have your assumptions and your questions. Before the answers to those are ultimately revealed, I've decided to permit a certain detective to present a brief period of respite for those involved – as well as bring to light some issues that likely have been puzzling the lot of you. After this, however, it pains me to admit that we must part ways. But do not fear – I will be closer than ever to the heart of this tale. _

_I shall leave you with this – the user defined truth may be something so simple or something complex and intuitive. Regardless, the fate of Hinamizawa within this defined truth shall be revealed, although in the end it may not be as important as it seems. _

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_**Pivotal Characters (perspective gets the bold)  
><strong>_Rai Sumidera  
>"Riku Furude"<br>Naoto Sakagami  
>Hatsune Edogawa<br>Saya  
>Dr. Saturn Anne<br>**Hanyuu Furude**

* * *

><p><em>The (Assisted) Suicide of Rai Sumidera<em>

The shovel in his hands continued to move in a set motion, repeatedly wrenching more and more dirt out of the ground. In a graveyard like this he was almost concerned with accidentally digging up someone else's body, but in the long run this graveyard had been so old he doubted that any of the corpses would still be anything but dust.

Eventually the hole grew to the size of an average plot for a coffin. But in this situation there would be no coffin, but instead just a lone body. The body of the very man who was digging the hole.

He gazed towards the horizon. The sun may have been rising or setting, but he wasn't particularly concerned with which shade of orange haze indicated which. His eyes shifted down the rather large hill that the graveyard sat upon, past the broken down shrine that he assumed had gone with this graveyard at some point and towards the town below. He could see what appeared to be some sort of a bonfire with people dancing around it along the outer edge. It was likely a holiday or a festival of some sort, but he was unaware as to which.

He continued digging the hole, making it as deep as possible. He did not want his body to ever be found under any circumstances, and so he made sure that the hole would be deep enough to contain two human bodies in the event that this site were ever used in the future.

His eyes continued to focus on that bonfire and the people who were united around it. He had desperately missed a union of such a sort, but in the end it was his obsession that had led to the ultimate collapse of said union.

He continued to dig as the sun seemed to remain stationary. He was beginning to wonder what time of day it was, but in the end he just kept digging the hole to its completion. He had set an end goal, but as a matter of fact he would just keep on digging well after that.

He continued to dig the hole, without any real end in sight. That end goal he had set quickly passed him by with another foot of dirt being flung over his shoulder.

He'd done so many things, good an terrible. But the good things that he had done were outweighed ridiculously by the terrible. He could never live down the things he did, even if he was the only one who knew about them.

He told himself he wouldn't back down. He wouldn't back away from his decision. He continued to dig well into the seemingly endless period of twilight. As he continued to stare at the bonfire, he realized that people tend to light these things close to the evening, not in the middle of the day. Therefore, it was likely evening.

He tried to occupy his mind with the minute details that surrounded him. The density of the fog cloud that seemed to hang around the top of the hill, the flickering of the bonfire, and the sound of the wind in the background. He continued to dig, for he now knew that if he stopped at this point he wouldn't be able to go through with it. He was still so terribly attached to this world, even though it was ultimately what destroyed him.

_I've betrayed them, haven't I? I've given them hope. But it's a false sort of hope. _

_I've betrayed them – I've offered the truth but I've given them nothing in return._

_They all did care. They all trusted that I would bring them to the answer they wanted. But I abused that trust to the greatest extreme. _

_It isn't any different from the way things were back then. _

_Yomi. Why did things have to end that way?_

_If I knew where you were now, I'd stop this right now and go find you. But I don't. You might still be at school, or you might not. _

_But I don't have the right to see you ever again. _

_I tried, I really did. I tried to save you. But I was too much of a coward to go through with it. _

_I blew my only chance. So now, I can only hope that things work out better for you in the future._

_Maybe you'll finally see just how worthless your brother was. _

_Maybe you'll finally be free. Even though I know so much about it, I don't know a damn thing about how it works._

_What did I do with myself? When did I let myself go?_

_Was it all those years ago? _

_Was it even earlier than that? _

_Does it even matter?_

His mind snaps back to reality. He has been digging the entire time, but the sun has finally set. He drops the shovel off to the side and simply stands there, with his eyes still focused on the bonfire.

He hears footsteps behind him.

"You came. I'm so happy." He speaks in a whisper.

He does not need to turn to see the face of the man behind him. He already knows that his face is identical to his own.

"…I have a feeling this isn't going to end well for either of us." He speaks. The man who has arrived had simply been told to meet here. He was not sure until this very moment what it was he was called here to do.

"It doesn't have to end badly for you. You're the one who's innocent in all of this."

"And you're guilty?"

"As charged. I've always been guilty of one thing or another. Why build up any more? Fewer people have to suffer that way."

The other man does not respond.

"…I don't believe I'll have a peaceful death."

"What makes you say that?"

"Look down there."

The man peers over the hilltop as told. He views the bonfire and the continuing festival around it.

"Hm…An occultist gathering?"

"Indeed. A ritual that involves summoning a demon from the metaphysical world to the physical world."

"I see…"

"I'm not sure why I'm saying this, but perhaps such gatherings aren't such bad things?"

"How so?"

"They're together, aren't they?"

The man sighed. "Ah, this again."

"It's the truth, isn't it?"

"Whether or not it's true has nothing to do with whether or not it's a good frame for reference."

"Then let's make this part of their union."

"Hm?"

"Let's make this Bald Mountain. Let's make them the devil's servants. And let's make me the devil."

"And the devil kills his servants?"

"That's not how it goes."

"Don't blame me, I'm not familiar with those kinds of creepy stories. Are you talking about the Walpurgis Night?"

"Yes, that's right." Rai smiles at him. "But I guess the devil could kill his servants if he wanted to."

"But then shouldn't _I_ be the one getting killed here?"

"But say the devil is tired of being evil. Say that he doesn't want to kill anymore. Say that the devil wants his closest servant to take revenge for all of the others."

"Attributing yourself to something you're not isn't a good enough reason to want to kill yourself."

"But is that even true?"

"Then are you a devil?"

"Am I _not_ a devil?"

"I'm not following."

"If I'm nothing but a devil, then I must be a devil. If I have yet to confirm that I am a devil, but I'm nothing else, then I must be a devil."

"That's not very consistent."

"You'd rather be the devil then? On this Walpurgis Night one of us must be the devil. We're the only two at the top of the mountain, after all."

"…Do you really want to go through with this? Don't you still have a sister waiting for you?"

"She's not waiting for anyone. I on the other hand am just waiting for death to claim me."

"Death won't be the end of this. You know that, right?"

"I'll suffer for all eternity if I have to. Just as long as no one else does in my place."

"…Alright, fine, I'll do it." He sighs in resignation. Knowing that there was no convincing him otherwise, he lifts the katana that he has concealed the entire time and readies it to run Rai through the heart.

"I just have one last request."

"What is it?"

"Whatever you do – do not go back to Hinamizawa. You won't find anything but death there."

"…Very well. I'll honor your last wish."

"Thank you."

With that, the cold steel found its mark and ran Rai through, finding its exit through his chest.

"Ah." He coughs out, with the last moments of his life draining out of his body. "…I think I've figured it out." With that, Rai fell to the floor, dead.

He lifts the sword, carefully sliding it out of the corpse of his once close friend. He leaves it at the side and lifts the body itself. Dropping the body in the freshly dug hole, he reaches for the shovel and begins to cover the body. Eventually, as the sun begins to rise once again, the hole is finally filled to the brim.

"…Hm. It would seem the Walpurgis Night is nearly over. But this devil isn't like any other devil." He rises, searching for the katana at his side. He gazes down to the bonfire, still alive with the flames of the occult ritual.

"This devil kills his servants. Therefore, as I was that devil's closest servant, I shall be a devil in his place." He spoke almost as a chant. Perhaps this was a sort of eulogy for the Rai Sumidera that once was.

He stalks off, heading down the hill and towards the pyre.

* * *

><p><em>An Inter(rogation)view with Saya<em>

The room in itself seemed to be completely faceless, with the only visible indication of any sort of a floor even being there being the two iron chairs, both of which were occupied by the two residents of the room. The room was practically invisible, with a deep purple void sprawling out into the background. The only lighting in the room was the bright light of what appeared to be an extremely miniscule sun seemingly suspended in the void.

Oishi Kuraudo sat in one of the two chairs with a rather stern look on his face. At a first glance, you'd never be able to tell it was him. His usual cheery demeanor was completely gone, and the deadly glare he gave the girl sitting across from him was completely uncharacteristic of him. His face was seemingly void of all life and of all features that made him Oishi Kuraudo. In fact, this man might as well have been someone entirely different.

"Are you prepared to answer my questions?" He spoke rather coldly.

Saya's eyes betrayed her. She had made herself determined not to break under pressure. But she had already broken under this man's gaze, and only for the few minutes they had been in this room. She nodded her head all the same, trying desperately to grab onto some semblance of courage. She'd already demonstrated enough of it already, but she was much weaker now than she had been then.

"Very well. First, your name and other general contact information."

"…Saya. I was raised in Hinamizawa. I don't know anything else."

"Alright. That seems to work out with my records. So, Saya, what can you tell me about what happened when you woke up?"

"You've already read my story, haven't you? That's all I can tell you."

"Really now? I beg to differ, but I should take this one step at a time."

Saya's eyes continued to betray her thoughts. Her eyes told him she had something to hide. He would rip apart every barrier this girl had in order to reach it. But he wondered if his power alone would be enough.

"I'll start with what you could remember when you woke up. Just tell me things you could remember."

"I knew what blood looked like. I could name objects around the room and I could remember how to speak Japanese. I could remember what I think is the bulk of my vocabulary, and I knew what things could smell like and what things did smell like. I retained all motor skills – the only thing I forgot about was who I was and where I was."

"Indeed, that is what it would seem to be. But you are certain that is all you could remember?"

"Yes. I couldn't remember anything else. There were likely objects and other such things that were lost to my memory as well, but I wouldn't know."

"Saya, I am to understand that you react poorly to blood, correct?"

"Yes. After awhile I made myself stomach it, but I'm certain that if I made any reasonable contact with blood things would happen that I wouldn't be able to control."

"So you were able to control how close you were to sources of blood?"

"Yes. My body was conditioned at some point in the past to do so. I doubt I could ever intentionally draw blood."

"I see… Moving on, I am to understand that you had encounters with wolves in the forest, and at the end of said encounter you were forced to use your clothing as a bandage of sorts. Describe your injury for me again."

"My calf was ripped open considerably. It wasn't too horrendously deep, but I was able to keep moving."

"How did you manage to patch up the wound given the profuse amount of blood that your leg would doubtlessly be producing?"

"I just didn't clean it. I had Yoko- san clean the injuries afterward."

"One last question, as it is now, you can say with certainty that you remember everything there was to remember about Hinamizawa, correct?"

"Yes. I'll testify to that."

"You'll testify? That is essentially stating that your statement is pure fact."

"Yes. _I testify to the fact that I retain all memory of Hinamizawa, sans names and faces. This includes every other aspect of the village._"

"I see…Anyhow, I doubt I need to ask you more general questions. Now for the more relevant information."

Saya shifted somewhat nervously.

"First of all, before I even address the latter chunk of your tale, I want to ask you why you've been lying to me."

"Huh?" Saya's face tried to express surprise, but again her eyes betrayed her expression.

"You claimed just a few minutes ago that not only are you intolerant of blood, but the only things you could recall about blood in general were the scent and appearance. Yet you casually forgot to make note of a line in your tale – where you comment about the copper taste of blood."

"…And what seems to be the issue?"

"You claimed that you could only recall a certain set of things. Considering how vital taste is to a human, I doubt you could simply forget to mention that you knew what things tasted like. With your comment regarding the taste of blood, and your current silence on the point, I'm beginning to think that it's a tad more important than I had once thought. While I won't pursue this point, as it may be a tad more irrelevant to the ends I am trying to achieve than I would like, let us leave it with this fact – your tale is not one-hundred-percent accurate."

Saya shifted again and remained completely silent.

"Furthermore, I'd like to bring to attention a small section of your tale towards the end. At a certain point, once the strange doctor-like figure approaches you, you point out that he is in possession of a file. Yet that file is not mentioned anywhere else prior to or after the event. While your tale is supposedly word for word with regards to these events, it would seem like a portion is missing. Explain this immediately."

"W-Well, it's simply that I knew he had my file."

"And why was that?"

"B-Because he knew my name and I had never seen him before."

"Ah, you're referring to the medical dossier kept for every person in the village?"

"Y-Yes. That's the one."

"So you're saying that the basis for your assumption is that he knew your name?"

"Y-Yes."

"However, the inconsistency here is rather simple – so simple I believe that you could tell me yourself with your current memory. You have already testified to being well aware of everything that has to do with the village, sans names and faces."

"Y-Yes."

"Therefore, you have just established that you never left the village even once, but more importantly you've established that you've been around for at least the last fifty years."

"H-Huh?"

"The files themselves are primarily used for medical care and other such information. However, you claim that your basis for the man having your file was the fact that he knew your name – your first name. As you claim you know all there is to know, you also claim that you know that said files do not consist of the subject's first name. Such has been a standard for a very long time, fifty years, in fact. If you knew this, which you claimed that you did, coupled with the fact that you are not fifty years old, then the assumption that he had your file is null and void – explain this immediately."

"I- I don't understand –"

"You testified to a fact. I have proven that such a fact might not even be a fact to begin with. Amend this immediately, or else your entire testimony up to this point and every aspect of your tale will be under serious investigation by the SSVD and the currently appointed Wizard Hunting Wright. You may be liable to serve several thousand years in a court prison." Oishi's voice became so automatic he did not even sound human.

"But I don't understand! That certainly isn't true… I could remember how blood tasted, but…but…!"

"Perhaps this scenario was entirely different. Perhaps _you _were the one who killed Naoto Sakagami. Perhaps _you _were the one chasing someone through the forest. Prove to me that such was not the case."

Saya was nearly at the point of breaking down. "…I'm sorry, but I couldn't…"

"You couldn't explain to us how the doctor knew you? Did you establish a red herring on purpose? Were you trying to _cover_ for the person who knew your name?"

"I…I can't…Tell you…I just can't…"

"Just how important was that detail about your recollection about how blood tasted? How much of your story was engineered to protect that person? Did you ever even lose your memory to begin with? How can a single line of your tale be taken as fact?"

Saya's tears rolled down her face almost readily.

Oishi was going to continue, but in a matter of seconds after Saya had started crying, a faceless door on the faceless wall was essentially broken down. He heard a gunshot of some sort, followed by the collapse of said door. A fuming Yoko Narukami stormed into the room. After swiftly slapping Oishi across the face as hard as she could, she ran to Saya's side and embraced her. Saya practically jumped into her arms.

Yoko's angry expression seemed to soften while she tried to comfort the girl, but it was getting to the point where she could blow a fuse any second.

It was touching, but it was getting in the way of work.

"A-Ah, Yoko-chan, you really can't be doing something like that, we were in the middle of –"

"You can drop the act. I know damn well you're not that old man." Yoko practically snarled at the figure of who was supposed to be Oishi Kuraudo. "He's an ass, but not _that_ much of an ass. If I knew a damn thing about you I would've saved that bullet for your brain."

'Oishi' sighed. "I'll kindly ask you to leave. You're interrupting important SSVD business."

"Do I look like a give a damn? She's done talking to you. On top of that you can't prove a damn thing you're accusing her of."

"Well if you hadn't interrupted at the moment you did I would've been close enough to getting a confession out of her."

"Point is you don't have one. And you're not going to get one."

He sighed again. "Fine. Just leave. I have enough information as it is."

Saya stood on her own and silently walked out of the room without so much as giving Oishi a farewell. Yoko followed suit. The door remained broken in their wake.

He sighed yet again. That certainly could have gone better.

* * *

><p><em>An Inter(rogation)view with The Lord of the Flies, Dr. Saturn Anne<em>

He sat somewhat motionlessly in the iron chair with his legs crossed and his left hand grasping his black hat that obscured his eyes significantly. Instead of the lab coat he wore most of the time, he was wearing a pitch black trench coat that spilled onto the faceless floor. One would not be able to tell the color of his eyes simply from looking at him as he was, but in the end he was actually doing them a favor. If a human were to look directly into his eyes they were likely to go insane – the very concept of the Lord of the Flies in this, his true form, was already beyond the grasp of a mortal mind and intellect. Staring into his eyes essentially meant looking into something that only the gods could perceive.

Hats were not allowed in the building, as regulations ordered that hats could be treated at a potential bomb threat. He had been asked twice to remove his. The first time he had been ordered to do so he simply strode past the security guards without so much as batting an eyelash. The second time, the security guard who had somewhat forcefully grabbed his shoulder was sent to the infirmary with a broken arm and a shattered rib cage.

Oishi stared him down, unable to determine the danger of looking into the man's eyes. He felt a bit shaken when he broke his gaze from him, but proceeded with his questioning anyhow. He might not have been Oishi Kuraudo in the most literal sense, but he was certainly still an extension of him and therefore still mortal.

"So I assume you're well aware of your rights."

"_My_ rights? I think we should be a bit more concerned about _your_ rights, my boy."

"My boy? That's not quite the best way to address an elder, now is it?"

"Oh, my mistake. I didn't know you've been rotting since before the beginning of time. Should I call you sensei?" Just from the grin on his face Oishi could tell he wasn't taking him seriously in the slightest.

Oishi ignored his rather devilish banter.

"So what is your connection to the case?"

"I have no connection to the case. I'm just the doctor. I speak to patients, and sometimes to mass murderers if they happen to drop by. I'm not behind anything."

"What makes you think I was accusing you of anything?"

"Your next question was going to be 'what is your relationship with the other suspect,' correct?"

"…You should be able to answer it then."

"I don't have any relation to any suspect. I'm not part of this case. If I were I'd take credit for it I'd be outright lying. The whole thing seems pretty elaborate to me. I'd love to have done something as crazy awesome as this, believe me."

"Oh, but I think you _are _involved."

"Oh, me? The poor innocent doctor who hasn't left that really cramped and crappy building in the last six months?"

"You certainly are involved…Oh, by the way, can we drop the whole Dr. Saturn act?"

"What act? You don't like my name?"

"You claimed multiple times in your documents that you are the Lord of the Flies. That implication still stands, or was it simply a gag on your part?"

"A gag? You consider that name to be indicative of a gag?"

"So you'll admit to it. So you're basically affirming your involvement to the case."

"And how exactly? If I'm the Lord of the Flies, what does that have to do with anything? You have no proof of otherwise whatsoever. I'll give it to you straight – I'm no James Moriarty. I'm not the kind of guy who can organize this sort of thing, _especially _on a large scale. I'm far too lazy, you see. The most I would do is trick an already dying man into giving me his money or something like that."

"Ah, there's where we have our conflict. I think you _are _James Moriarty. I also think you're the culprit of this entire case."

"And how in _hell_ can you possibly come to that conclusion? Do I look like I'm a fictional character? Do I look even slightly European to you? Hell, do I even look Japanese to you?" He readjusted his hat slightly. The glint from one of his supernatural eyes seemed to protrude from the darkness under it.

"I have a bit of a theory I'd like for you to prove."

"Oh, this'll be good."

"I've come to the conclusion that you're simply the root of all evil. You're the darkness in every person's heart in the form of a wise-ass doctor impersonator."

"Hm… You're not all that far off. I'd give you a round of applause, but if I let this hat shift any further it'd be dangerous for you."

"So, now that you've confirmed that for me, then give me your real name."

The doctor sighed. "You know, you're really not making things easy for me. Don't you already have a good enough idea of what I am?"

"I want a name. You have to have a name."

"Does the darkness in people's hearts need a name?" The doctor's grin seemed to mock Oishi more and more as it grew.

"Give me a name, or else we'll be here all evening."

He sighed somewhat dramatically. "Oh, fine. If you want a name, I suppose I can give you one."

He paused briefly, before lifting the hat slightly, one of his apparently blood red eyes almost fully protruding from beneath it. Oishi did feel incredibly dizzy just from looking directly at it, forcing him to look away only slightly.

"…Astaroth. That should suffice."

"A prince of hell?"

"More like the king of hell."

"So you're more like the devil then?"

"Perhaps."

"But then you're essentially equivalent to a god yourself?"

"Not exactly. I'm not exactly the strongest guy in the world. Maybe the strongest supernatural deity you've ever heard of but even that's giving myself too much credit." Astaroth continued to play off his strength – something that Oishi knew outclassed any mortal man.

"So you're saying there's more than one king?"

"Let me ask you something. Is there_ any _indication whatsoever that your idea of kings and princes applies somewhere like Hell? Do you even have any idea what Hell is like?"

"…No, not exactly. But I simply assumed."

"I'll tell you something. The darkness in human hearts is certainly not the only darkness in the world. But more importantly, I'm not even sure you have enough evidence to prove any of that anyhow."

"What do you mean?"

"Can you prove to me right now that there's such things as angels and demons? Can you prove to me right now that I'm not just some psychotic asylum patient who knows his way around words? Can you prove anything about something that a mere mortal like yourself has no possibility of understanding?"

Oishi wasn't sure how to respond to something like that.

"Therefore, trying to prove that I'm involved in this case because of some garbage testimony about princes and kings of Hell. You simply can't. Moreover, the supernatural can never be used to solve a case, especially one like this…What was it again? Knox law number…Eh, whatever. You get the idea."

"Look, at this point I'll accept what you're saying. But you simply have to be involved. There's no way in hell that you aren't. I'm here not because of your immortal lineage. I'm just here to get a confession out of you."

"Can't you tell that you're never going to get one? You're a rather stubborn human, that's for sure. The last time I dealt with one of your kind was… Well, I guess it was quite a long time ago."

For an instant, as Astaroth was recounting a memory he chose not to voice, Oishi saw it. The glint in his eyes seemed to gleam significantly darker.

"…Who was this person?" Oishi saw the chance to press for more information. He knew he wouldn't get any, but at least he would be able to slightly shaken this monster's resolve even if just slightly.

"Is it of any relevance to you? I'm not as foolish as that girl to testify to something without thinking. I won't comment on anyone or anything the way you're trying to get me to."

"Who said anything about testifying?" Oishi didn't catch himself using that same phrase again. He knew that this man could read his every thought.

"You did. Just now." He laughed rather heartily after he said that.

"Let me ask you one final question."

"What is it? Go on, I won't laugh at you."

"Who are Aria and Mido? Are they beings similar to you?"

The grin on Astaroth's face vanished. "They were just humans. That's all. Humans I could be human with for the short time that I was, but alas, that time has come to an end."

"Ah – then may I ask one more question?"

"What is it now?"

"In your reports – you claimed to have been going insane."

"What of it? Do I look sane to you?"

"…I see." Oishi had actually been trying to pull one over the prince of hell with that question. He knew he wouldn't get anything relevant out of the man, given how his every thought could be read and countered instantaneously. He just wanted the satisfaction of proving without supernatural powers that Astaroth was nuts. But he wasn't even given that.

"I suppose I'll be going now. I doubt you need me for anything else." Without even waiting for a reply from Oishi, Astaroth snapped his fingers and vanished altogether.

Oishi sighed for must have been the fourth time that day. Certainly, these characters weren't making his job any easier.

Oishi filed his report later that day. All evidence was determined indecisive and there was no definitive proof to back the accusations he had made. Saya's testimony was indeed full of holes, but without proper investigation the reasoning behind Oishi's accusations were just as full of holes – he had called out Saya on facts relating to the medical dossiers based solely off of an article submitted by the Unreliable Narrator. There was still no verification to his claims, but there would have been had Yoko arrived any later. He was only moments from the confession he needed to make his bluff successful.

Astaroth was a completely different case. He was without a doubt involved in the case more deeply than he had let on, but without supernatural evidence there was absolutely no way to prove it. Outside of the metaphysical dimension he was just a bored and rather vulgar doctor. But inside the metaphysical dimension he was the embodiment of human hatred and darkness.

In the end he couldn't prove anything. And so he waited for further developments to occur.

* * *

><p><em>A Wrap Party (held in the deepest bowels of Hell)<em>

The sounds of swords clashing could be heard in the otherwise silent pit of the Netherworld, a place where the dead had recently congregated.

The two who were fighting were not fighting for any particular reason. They could fight, and so they did. The fight itself was just as pointless as it was for them to have a reason to do so. There was little to no way that either of them had any idea as to why they had nothing better to do than fight. And so after several minutes of exchanging what would otherwise be considered deadly blows the two simply stopped.

"Dammit, how the hell did you get my leg?" A Sonozaki sibling whined. Her leg had been severed rather swiftly, but it had already grown back into place.

"It's not my fault you've gotten slow in your old age." Her opponent had been Rika Furude, who was now in her early twenties. She had at least managed to obtain the older body she had wanted, although the price for it wasn't so grand.

"I'm only thirty-something. I think. How old are you again?"

"Twenty-two. At least I remember how old I am."

The Sonozaki sibling lightly whacked her in the face.

"Hey, what did I tell you about –" Before Rika was about to continue complaining, she was cut off by the appearance of both Satoko and the other Sonozaki sibling, who both appeared with what appeared to be boxes of assorted fish.

"We brought something. Quit arguing and eat." The sibling spoke rather curtly. The two of them walked off rather quickly, apparently off to find more people to share the food with.

The two sat down almost promptly, with Rika already making claims to at least half of the fish that was available.

"Can you go one day without eating so much fish?"

"Hey, cats eat lots of fish. So why can't I?"

At some point Satoko, the other Sonozaki sibling, and Keiichi, the only person they could find, had joined them around the meal.

"Rika didn't eat everything already, did she?" Keiichi immediately took to picking on the girl, which seemed to be his favorite thing to do in general.

"Satoshi didn't show up?" One of the twins, likely Shion, asked.

"Nah. He's doing something important, or at least that's what he told me." Keiichi replied. In reality, Satoshi hadn't been seen or heard from in a very long period of time. The rest of them knew what Keiichi meant by 'busy.'

"What could possibly be more important than his bride to be?" One of the twins, this one presumably Mion shouted. She was the one who tended to be more open about her sister's engagement.

"Speaking of which, how are we going to hold a wedding in Hell? Isn't that, like, you know, kinda unfitting for a place like this?" Rika remarked.

"It'll be like how we did the last one. Since there aren't any wedding bells or organs in hell, we set the scene to Rika's cat noises and we just go from there." The other twin remarked.

The group of them laughed, but soon fell into silence. At times like this, with the bulk of them gathered, they had to realize just what they were doing and where they really were. The boxed fish remained sealed in their wrapping. No one touched a single piece of food.

They were in Hell, after all. They didn't necessarily deserve to be there, but in the end that was where they all were sent. But certainly, some of them _did _indeed deserve their sentence.

"You know, I really miss my cat." Rika spoke.

"You don't have a cat." Satoko spoke for the first time in quite awhile.

"How would you know?"

"I live with you."

"Oh."

More silence passed before a slightly enraged Rika spoke up again.

"This sucks." Rika pouted. "Why can't we all meet up together for once?"

"Well, Rena didn't go to hell. And Satoshi doesn't seem to care much anymore." Keiichi gave her an answer she'd heard one time too many.

"It's not that he doesn't care. He's just busy." One of the twins tried to assure them. Of course it sounded more like she was only really trying to convince one person – herself.

"I was in the middle of beating the shit out of a Demon Lord and I still put things on hold because you guys wanted to meet up. If that's not good enough to be considered busy, I'd love to know what Satoshi's been up to." Keiichi seemed to retort.

"You're saying he deserted us?" Satoko seemed to join in, thus making the sides of the argument uneven against Keiichi.

"Just think about it. What if he wants nothing to do with us now? Wasn't everything sort of our fault to begin with?"

"That isn't true. He's just confused, that's all." The twin responded. Her voice was still wavering.

"You don't know that. We don't know that." Satoko was essentially yelling at him now.

"Accept it. He's not ever going to come back." As Keiichi said that, the other twin moved to slap him across the face, but he caught her arm before she could make contact.

"There's still no way you could know that for sure." She argued. "Think about it. You can't just say that. You have no proof."

"True. I don't. But do you have proof for your side of the argument?"

"Can't you just have faith?" The twin the furthest from him almost tried to plead. "Faith that he will come back someday?"

Keiichi snorted. "I tried believing. I tried having faith. I tried to be hopeful. And look where I ended up. Where we all ended up. Faith and hope mean nothing, and we all should know that."

"Kei-chan, please…Just believe. Maybe you didn't believe hard enough before!" She continued to plead, although now it was more like begging than anything else.

"Does it really matter?" He continued to reject a concept that he found incredibly ridiculous.

"…Weren't you the one?" Rika suddenly spoke up.

"Hm?"

"Weren't you the one who wanted me to believe? Weren't you the one who told me that there wasn't such a thing as fate? That we could only get the outcome we wanted if we worked for it? Didn't _you _convince _me_ not to give up until the end?"

"But it didn't do any good, did it?"

"Who can say? Do any of us really remember what happened back then?" Rika directed that question at them all. But none could answer. "Isn't it just as possible that we just didn't believe hard enough?"

"Believing something will happen is something entirely different from something actually happening. We all died; that's all there is to it."

"So then you're saying that it never mattered? Even after you kept me going for another forty years because of what you said?"

"Yeah, well I _thought_ something back then. I think differently now."

"But why can't you believe in Satoshi? We don't know if he's gone for good. He hasn't visibly betrayed us yet. So can't you believe that something that hasn't happened yet will happen."

Keiichi sighed. "You want me to put my faith in something like that, huh? Something that might've happened, but we aren't so sure of it…?"

"Can't you, Keiichi?" One of the twins spoke softly.

"…Dammit." He groaned before sitting in silence for awhile longer.

Eventually, Keiichi stood up. "This is no good."

"Where are you going?" Someone spoke. It didn't really matter who.

"I can't just sit around and wait for the truth to find me. I'm going to go find it. I'm going to go find Satoshi myself."

"But weren't you in the middle of a fight?" Satoko spoke.

"He can wait. He's not going anywhere any time soon."

"Good luck. You'll need it." Rika spoke somewhat more solemnly.

"If you see Rena…" One of the siblings trailed off, "…Ask her if she's ever read Hamlet."

"Will do." Keichi raised his arm as a sort of a wave good-bye.

As Keiichi walked off, a small smile tugged at the corner of Rika's mouth.

Keiichi has lost his faith. But perhaps if he could stop dwelling on a result that betrayed his faith, perhaps he could proceed onward.

Indeed, Satoshi was likely lost, and just as confused. But waiting things out, just as he had back then, would likely yield the same result as back then.

Keiichi then wandered off, not having eaten a single piece of fish. In the end, none of the others had any either.

But they were far more interested in the idea of Satoshi returning to them, so they could unite to the best of their ability. And in the end it seemed that only Keiichi was capable of making a difference.

He eventually faded away into the darkness of hell, but as he did he seemed to transform to a certain degree.

He wore a familiar black hat and a long trench coat.

"I am the king of this world. Yet I am..." He chanted. Whenever he assumed this form, he always affirmed his existence by chanting those very words. His voice seemed to peter out this time, however, before he finished his sentence.

"Hm…Yes, he will find you alright, Satoshi. And then…" The king of Hell whispered, "…Then things will _really_ get interesting." And so he went off into the darkness to parts unknown.

* * *

><p>Off in another corner of the Netherworld, the other two, Naoto and Hatsune, sat in total silence, until Naoto finally saw it fit to break said silence.<p>

"It's funny."

"What is?"

"We both have people we care about deeply. They cared about each other just as deeply. But now it's like they're mortal enemies."

"It's certainly true. In the end it's mostly my own fault."

"How so?"

"I told her about everything. About how those people were going to return – everything. I had my own agenda. But I knew I'd fail, so I dragged her along with me."

"Hm…Perhaps everything is indeed your fault."

"I'd be fine with accepting that."

"But in the end you don't get that luxury. People are going to die because of you, even if it isn't just because of you alone."

"I know that now."

"But would you have done things any differently?"

"No. I can tell you that with certainty. I risked everything, but I risked it all for a reason."

"I see…"

The two practically mortal enemies by association sat together in silence for a long while.

Naoto Sakagami. Dead because she tried to protect those closest to her, but the Devil Student myth that became reality overtook her and in her last few moments she managed to allow her friends to live even if just for a short time. In this place, she was able to know all that there was to know. She knew Yoko was still alive, and she knew that above anyone else she had the most prominent chance for survival.

Hatsune Edogawa. Dead because of her terrible sins in a relationship that was never consensual in the slightest. She lived for her village, and even though she tried to remove herself from it she ultimately died for her village as well. In the end her fate was the most likely end result for her, but because of her desire to be able to live free of something as terrible as the curse that she knew would overtake her one day she gave up everything to take the chance. In the end her sister suffered for it, and will suffer so much more in the future. But she knew her sister had a very high chance of survival.

But no matter how high either one's chance was to survive, one of them ultimately had to die. That was the fate that the two no longer had the power to change.

"Yoko…"

"Harumi…"

""I wonder which one of you will be left standing.""

In that moment the two turned to face each other. Naoto drew a dagger from within one of her uniform's pockets and Hatsune lifted a wooden club that was apparently close by. The two began their fight – their endless fight to prove which side was stronger, and perhaps determine for themselves which side of the spectrum would ultimately win. And so, more violence commenced.

* * *

><p>As I reside here in the present time, my power still grows weak. But I am still alive, and as long as I continue to narrate unreliably and my infinite lie continues to manifest itself I will still exist. When I have freed myself from the chains of this fragment I will finally be able to proceed to the heart of all fragments, and perhaps ascend to the next level with the rest of them.<p>

This story draws ever closer to its conclusion. Perhaps the climax has already been reached, but then again, you have yet to see the events of the climax from more than one perspective. But understand that the closer to the end that you come the darker and the more dire the world will become. This is a fragment, and as such I, as the lord of said fragment, can already see the conclusion that this fragment will reach.

You have come to this point, having been exposed to the hopes and dreams of many people, and just as exposed to the collapse of such hopes and dreams. But there is still one who hopes for the future despite how short his future may be, and in the end I am pleased to know that my infinite lie has become so potent. There are questions, and I certainly have answers. But those answers would probably just be lies. After all, you can't trust a word of what I say.

But I assure you, there will be closure. There will be a conclusion. There will be death. There will be the true form of the user defined truth. There will be a reality and a fantasy, and it is needless to say that there will be one that triumphs over the other. There will very soon be a clear distinction between good and evil, and who is just and who isn't.

Or perhaps – there won't be any of those things. I am a liar by nature. It is my purpose to lie and deceive. It is my reason and my means to exist.

I lie, therefore I am.

I deceive you, therefore I am.

If I am, therefore I am lying.

If I am, you are therefore being deceived.

So certainly I am a liar.

But how much of a liar am I?

I honestly couldn't tell you.

Or perhaps I could.

Regardless, I bid you farewell for now.

That at least must be true. I can't exactly greet you as you leave.

* * *

><p>So there's the wrap party. Some important details, some not so important details. And one really important detail. Truth be told, you'll need the contents of this chapter to figure out what happened in the third chapter. Of course I've pretty much given it away at this point but eh, if you came to this conclusion beforehand you aren't really being spoiled of all that much.<p>

The Lunatic Moon Solution Chapter will be up relatively soon, since I've been sitting on quite a bit of it since _well _before I posted this story in the first place. Just for reference, this next chapter will likely be the longest chapter in the entire story. The previous contender for that spot was the Invitation Chapter, which capped at about 15,000 words. This one will be more like 20,000.

Anyhow, expect that sometime next week, or maybe by Friday. It depends on when I get to finish it.

UPDATE: Fixed more typos. Some of them were glaring and I have no idea how I missed them my first time through.


	21. Bio Study Observation 03

Alright, so the Answer Arc of the story will officially begin now. It took a bit longer than I would have liked, but it's done. I _did _say sometime this week, though. Granted it was at the end of the week but whatever.

The first major story arc will see (most) of its resolution in this chapter, but the remainder of the answer arcs will be written slightly differently from this one. Since the first chapter had many more holes within it than the rest of the main chapters, the remainder of the arcs will be focused more primarily on moving the story onward.

Also, I didn't make mention of this the first time I did this, but **Umineko EP8 spoilers will be present in the coming chapter. **I tried to be as light on details as I could.

So, without any further delay, the answers to the first few short stories. Are any of these predictable? Sort of, but some of the details are a tad over the top.

* * *

><p><strong>Bio-Study-Operation-Observation 03 : Subject ACER-2149825497<strong>

As I am submitting these relatively out of order, it goes without saying that I will not be playing the role of the satirical doctor in these reports. I have already done so, and the upper staff of the medical wards has received the material as requested. These reports, however, will be sent directly to the High Council of the SSVD.

I will now do as requested and analyze the Unreliable Narrator's tales and, with my lesser form of stating the truth that the majority of the High Council has bestowed upon me for the duration of this exercise I shall reveal the true nature of said tales. I will be as critical as I am expected to be.

We shall begin with the _Double Demon Chapter._

The main source of unreliability in this story was the very end of the tale. It goes somewhat without saying that Mion's explanation for why she swapped identities with her sister was severely fabricated. The unreliable narration in this sense was that this statement was presented as fact. I am not pleased with how relatively easy it was to determine that. I must punish my rival for that.

But you have heard it here first. The meaning of their transition from one identity to the other is not a vital factor in the user defined truth, as the one who is aware of the user defined truth has essentially confirmed it herself.

In the end, Mion's lie drove Keichi to act against Shion. But surely poor Keichi would have been smart enough to not give into her lies and perhaps believe in the love he once had for Shion.

But in fact he never loved her, in all practicality. For after all _someone_ in this story had to have the syndrome, as it was dictated. And certainly it would seem that Satoko is the one who is on the verge of obtaining the syndrome, but has yet to act upon it.

Therefore, one of the people who killed must have been the one.

It was in fact Shion.

For in her grief over Satoshi, a reason why she would be motivated to kill in many a fragment, she nearly killed Keichi himself.

And he simply loved her in Satoshi's place for the sake of keeping himself alive.

Teppei's life was lost because of this. Because Teppei needed to die in order for Shion to preserve Satoko and therefore preserve her promise with Satoshi and therefore preserve herself.

Keichi went along with it all, and went as far as making himself believe he was really in love with her.

And therefore making Mion believe the same thing. Although there isn't enough to go off of to tell me if she was aware of her sister's situation or not. But Keichi didn't seem to care all that much. It didn't matter to him in the end. He was simply more interested in being able to casually fornicate with the Sonozaki sibling whenever he wished to.

Indeed, Keichi is quite the bastard.

As for the Rika of this tale?

She isn't important. She simply sets things in motion. She can easily be represented by anything, really. Even myself, as a matter of fact.

* * *

><p>We shall now proceed with the <em>Jade Jealousy Chapter.<em>

This story was rather on the short side, yet it condensed a very specific series of events into a scenario with no dialogue. I will therefore explain essentially every aspect of this tale. This will also serve to explain just how tremendously the Hinamizawa Syndrome can alter the events of these stories.

Of course, Mion Sonozaki never was pregnant to begin with. In fact, her grandmother's "outrageous" plan was in itself a fabrication, as her grandmother outright forbade her from falling in love with Keichi. Mion continued to pursue him, twisting her grandmother's orders into a completely different command. In a single night she realized that Keichi was not in love with her, but rather with the petite- and far too young- shrine maiden, Rika Furude. Realizing that she had failed herself in the worst way imaginable, she snuck into Keichi's home one evening and forced herself on him. In order to save his dear friend, who he knew was already knee deep in the so called Hinamizawa Syndrome, he had sex with her. He gave in to her demands and allowed her to spend the night with her.

The following day Mion took a pregnancy test, and instead of the negative result that the test displayed, the Syndrome twisted the result to be positive. Mion consciously knew that the result was false. She even tried to reach for help at the last second, once she realized she was under the effects of the Syndrome- she visited Rika at the shrine, but at that point the disease had overtaken her completely. Rika knew that the disease had taken over Mion, but knowing what the end result would be regardless of whether or not she tried to stop it she let Mion go.

Rena, on the other hand, was completely clueless. She took Mion's words as fact. Mion's sickened ranting drove her beyond the borderline and if Mion had not acted first, Rena would have been the one to kill. Rena went into a depression of her own and eventually it came to the point where she resorted to masturbation to satisfy herself. A fitting end to such a fool, despite a fool who fell to the deadly Syndrome.

At the point where Shion found out, she assumed that her sister had been under the impression that Keichi had wanted a child. Thus, she told her to wait a certain amount of days before telling him. But in that period of time Keichi decided to tell Shion, and only Shion about Mion's condition. The two kept it a secret until, they agreed, that Mion's condition could be more accurately described than simply "The Hinamizawa Syndrome," which may or may not have even existed in the first place. These discussions about her condition took place in Shion's room, which Mion's diseased mind translated to the two having sex.

The following day when Mion told Keichi she was pregnant, Keichi believed her. He had been dreading such a statement, but he couldn't believe that she would have become pregnant in a single night. Shion's confession? A total fabrication. Mion had driven herself to the point where even if Keichi wasn't present in their house to check on her she would still hear them in the opposite room.

But the catalyst for that was, of course, her catching them in the act. In a twist of fate, Keichi had been leaving Shion room when he accidentally tripped and fell on top of her. It was an embarrassing moment, but one that Mion witnessed and twisted into them having sex.

In the end, the Angle Mort women were speaking of an unimportant man named Daisuke Ono, who had been dating several women left and right, most of which having been working at Angel Mort. But Mion of course misinterpreted it. Why was she there in the first place? Shion had caught wind of the Yamainu plot to kill Keichi and had moved the boy into her room. Mion needed to be gone while this event took place.

As for Rena? She was simply taunting Mion out of her own disgust. But that got her killed.

Mion then killed poor innocent Keichi while he was packing his things.

And then her sister, who she mutilated out of her own sorrow.

A very dark story indeed.

So was poor Keichi completely innocent in all of this?

Absolutely not.

Because the Keichi with a single 'i' in his name never is. That is a granted fact of any and all of the Unreliable Narrator's stories.

I myself am not fully sure of the implications behind the slight spelling change and what said spelling change represents, but it certainly holds some merit. Believe me, "I" would know.

Hm…That wasn't all that funny, now was it?

* * *

><p>We shall now move onto the last tale of this report, and far and away the most controversial of them, the <em>Suspicious Fragrance Chapter.<em>

This tale all on its own is a red herring. The details as presented in this story are primarily of the magic variety. Witches and demons and all the like simply can't exist, right?

But that aside, the story of Rika's rise to power through becoming drunk on Bernkastel wine made way for a tale that was all essentially falsehood.

But it's strange. This was one of the few tales that alludes to Miyo Takano as the driving force behind the disaster.

But is that even important in the end?

Well, from the perspective of the End Dreamer, it is.

After all, he should have found the solution very early on in that case.

Or perhaps he was more concerned with who he was rather than how everyone died.

There is, however, a very small detail hidden in this chapter.

It's a very small line, regarding one of the Sonozaki twins.

Now go and find it, and perhaps you can piece together the common theme in these stories.

And then you will hopefully have everything you need to determine an aspect of the true Hinamizawa of this fragment.


	22. V: Begotten Memory Chapter

**Begotten Memory Chapter**

_If you haven't figured it out by now, the hastily prepared story does in fact have a conclusion to it. If you haven't determined this conclusion from the facts given yet (and you shouldn't have), you are permitted to read this solution chapter. Regardless of the nature of the story this story was based off of, this story shall __**indisputably be treated as fact **__when pertaining to the user-defined truth due to appearances by various goats. I shall grant that to you with my infallible truth. You have been warned. _

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (bolded character gets the perspective):_

Doctor Markus Vaughn (Age 40, Hair Black, Eyes Black)  
>Reiji Nakamura (Details Redacted)<br>"**Riku Furude" **(Age Not Given, Hair Blonde, Eyes Blue)  
>Ikuko Hachijo (Age Not Given, Hair Dark Purple, Eyes Dark Purple)<br>Tohya Hachijo (Age 21)

* * *

><p>Guess who's back. I'm pretty sure you'd think I'd be dead by now, considering how I more or less bled to death quite a long while ago, but then again I'm not the easiest person to take down. Then again, neither was Mion Sonozaki, who I'm pretty sure didn't fare as well as I did, although her body apparently wasn't found as the others were. But I'm sure she's dead.<p>

I feel a bit bad about all of it in the end, though. I mean, I _did _deceive you guys, and believe me, it was more than just that business with the knife. That was my hint I ever so cleverly gave you that I was basically feeding you all shit the whole time. For all the lip I gave the old Rai, I'm pretty damn inconsistent myself.

But now, I've pretty much gotten to the point where lying to preserve my real identity will pretty much amount to nothing at all. After all, I don't have anything else to lose, except my life if I can really place any value on that at this stage of the game. So I've apologized, and now I'll start telling you all the whole and reliable truth. For real this time.

Things have gotten a bit crazy- for worse, mind you. But first, I guess I should start from the beginning- from the moment my hellish journey started to where I am now.

I awake from what appears to be the longest sleep I've ever had. It almost feels like I've been asleep for years and I just now finally woke from that endless sea of black that I've been staring at for more years than I probably could distinguish. As I wake I notice the room around me. It's a hospital room, and I am now sitting on a gurney at the center of the room. There are various wires and such attached to me. I can see nothing else but the ceiling as my neck is too weak to move at the moment.

I wonder how I got here. But more importantly I wonder how I am going to get out.

"So he finally woke up, eh?"

Someone spoke. I know that they're nearby, if only I could move my neck….!

With some effort I finally manage to twist my head to the side to see two people standing there- or rather, one standing and one sitting in a wheelchair. The one standing is a woman. I don't know how old she is, but I have a sizable idea since the man next to her is clearly far older. He might be in his eighties for all I know. Or then again he could just have silver hair.

"Good morning." The woman speaks, lightly smiling at me.

"…." I am still unable to speak. After all, I was asleep for so damn long I feel like I'm going to faint again.

"You don't have to speak for the moment." The man in the wheelchair speaks. His voice is void of life. "Do you know where you are? You can blink if you have to."

"…No…" I manage to wheeze out. God I'm in bad shape.

"Good, he can speak again. As you're clearly conscious I might as well get this out of the way now." He wheels closer to me, with the woman behind him following closely.

"I am Tohya Hachijo. This woman is Ikuko Hachijo."

"I'm his wife." She adds somewhat happily. His reaction shows that he is embarrassed. It seems he has some emotions after all.

"We aren't exactly married, but…Anyhow….Do you remember a single thing about what you went through?" Tohya tried to get the conversation on track before it derailed.

"…." Come to think of it, there was something that was nagging me since I woke up. I thought it wasn't important at first but I guess it is now that I had the time to mull it over.

Who the hell am I?

"You might be a tad bit confused. That's only to be expected. After all, things haven't been easy for you." Tohya spoke when I didn't make any sort of reaction.

"That's right…You've been through quite a lot, Riku." Ikuko added.

My face shot up again. It seemed that this woman knew quite a bit more about me than I did. "…Riku? Is that my name?"

"Riku Furude. That's your name." She nodded her head. That was a start, I guess.

"But…I don't understand. What happened to me?"

"You were in an accident. You've been asleep for a few years." She continued. "You see, you were abandoned by your parents and separated from your little sister. You've been unconscious since you were attacked. You were badly damaged and you've been in a coma since."

"A coma…But my parents abandoned me?"

"Only to protect you. They were the subject of terrible persecution back then." Her face fell.

"I see….And what of them now? What of my little sister?"

"…They're all dead, I'm afraid."

"What?" My eyes widen. I'd only been awake for a few minutes and I've already been subjected to the news that my whole family was dead. What a morning.

"It happened in your home village, Hinamizawa. The entire village was wiped out. Your parents died long before that, however." She continued to divulge my life's story. "They were murdered."

"Murdered? But by who?"

"The Sonozaki family, more specifically the eldest child of the Sonozaki family, Sonozaki Mion." Tohya recited that bit of information like he'd said it a hundred times. "The family ran the village up until when they decided it was time to kill everyone and purged the entire village, leaving virtually no survivors, not even of their own family- of course, you happen to be the only exception. Mion Sonozaki was close friends with your sister and so it was easy for her to get to her."

"Purged the entire village…But why would they want to do something like that?"

"We still don't even know." Ikuko continued. "All we know was that they gassed the villagers to death. Aside from that we don't have enough evidence to suggest anything else."

Tohya wheeled himself a bit closer to me, holding a pack of papers in his hands. "Doubtlessly you're going to have a hard time grasping all of this. To help you out, I've prepared all the information, public and otherwise, that we've managed to allocate regarding the Hinamizawa Disaster. You should read this over before we go any further into detail."

He placed the huge stack of papers on the small table next to me. I wasn't entirely sure why the man was even bothering to do this considering how he seemed so uninterested in the entire deal. I silently thanked him and started reading the first page.

_The Great Hinamizawa Disaster: Two thousand civilians killed in natural gas leak_

It was a newspaper article of sorts. It briefly mentioned how the village was destroyed in a natural gas leak- already something that didn't add up.

"But if the Sonozaki family killed everyone, then why is this article saying it was a gas leak?"

"Obviously a cover up. There was no possible way that a gas leak of that size could've been natural and have been able to kill so many people so quickly." Tohya curtly replied while Ikuko remained silent.

I continued to read. The article wasn't nearly as important as the remainder of the papers. All of this information was likely all there was to know about Hinamizawa and the people that were a part of the village.

It was quite a story- a story that I'd never read in my entire life for fear of scaring the shit out of myself, but a story none the less.

A natural gas leak uses as a cover up for large scale genocide.

A former yakuza family that was trying its hardest to keep a lid on the ritualistic nature of the village to expand its hold on the areas around it.

A series of murders over the course of several years pertaining to what was known in the village as the Dam War, started over the government's desire to destroy the village entirely.

The nature in which the Dam War was rather silently brought to an end.

The mysterious deaths of the dam's construction director and the deaths of not only the parents of a Satoko Houjou, but the deaths of my parents as well.

The God of Hinamizawa, Oyashiro-sama.

The God that my family worshiped more devoutly than any other. A disease that was exclusive to residents of the village that didn't take full effect until they left the village.

As I continued to read, names stood out. While Kimiyoshi and Sonozaki were the ruling figures of the village, the information pertaining to the murders seemed to focus not where one would think it would.

The Sonozaki family, the Houjou family, and my family, the Furude family. The three families that were directly involved in the deaths in some way, shape or form- victims of murder, or murderers of victims. It seemed that the families were either part of the Dam War or opposed to it, while my own family sat in the center. In the end, the village came out on top, with Sonozaki reigning above the others and the head of the family, Oryou Sonozaki, becoming the true power in the village- and likely the progenitor for the mass genocide that claimed the lives of all who were involved to begin with.

There was likely some underlying secret to it all- something that was true about the supposed Hinamizawa Syndrome. But that secret was kept hidden by a select few- a select few that didn't exactly have the best relationship. In the end, the secret was likely compromised- by who and how, it was not known, but clearly something had happened that forced Sonozaki to take action. And so with Mion Sonozaki at the foreground, they erased everything and everyone who was involved. Kimiyoshi, Furude, Houjou- all of them. Even themselves.

In the end, the truth was never revealed, and likely never would. Hinamizawa was now closed off to the public and the chances of there being any solid amount of evidence seven years later was relatively small.

I sighed. This was like some really bad horror story.

"So there's nothing to be done, is there? The culprit got away because the culprit died, right?"

"…Not exactly." Ikuko spoke somewhat softly. "You see, there's a chance that…The person responsible is still alive."

"You mean Sonozaki Mion?"

Ikuko nodded. "It's very possible, but almost impossible to verify." She took a deep breath before continuing. "The only way to truly know- to truly understand what happened back then would be to go there yourself and discover the truth."

Traveling to Hinamizawa? Was she crazy?

"Is that even possible? How would I even go about doing something like that?"

"Simply put- you have to break in." Tohya spoke. "But you alone won't be able to do it. We won't be of any help ourselves, but there must be some way to do it."

"Think about it. You don't have to do this, you know. It would be better to just forget about it and try to make a new life for yourself." Ikuko gave the opposite aspect of what she had proposed.

Going to the village to find the truth…

I'd probably end up dead.

It'd be difficult to get in on my own. Going in a group would make it easier to escape if things got messy. But there was no guarantee that either way would work.

The person responsible could have still been alive.

The person personally knew and killed my sister was still alive.

I didn't even remember her or what she looked like.

But she was my sister, wasn't she?

Shouldn't I do something?

"…My sister. Rika, right?"

"…Yes, that's right. Rika. She was a very sweet girl. She never meant any harm for anyone. But in the end she wasn't spared either." Ikuko seemed to know a bit more about my sister.

"…What did she look like?"

Ikuko suddenly remembered something and reached into her pocket. What she pulled out was a photo- a black and white photo of several people, all children from the looks of it. Two of them were rather short, while the three others seemed to be roughly the same height. One of them was male, making him the oddest of the bunch

"…She's in this picture. She's the short girl with the long hair."

I looked at the photo more closely. The moment I got a decent look at her- it was like being hit by a train, if that's a good way to describe it.

Were they memories, or just feelings? I really didn't know.

But I definitely knew this girl.

She really was my sister after all.

She was smiling in the photo, standing next to another girl of a similar height. It seemed that the girl next to her had lighter hair, but Rika's hair was likely just a darker gold. The two of seemed to be very close, as the one with the lighter hair seemed to be latched onto her in-

And then I saw her. My eyes shifted to the tallest girl in the photo. The refined gaze her eyes gave off, and that satisfied smile-

This was Sonozaki Mion. I was absolutely certain. This was the woman who was responsible for my sister's death.

"…Sonozaki. This is Sonozaki, correct?"

"…Yes, that's her. This was taken a short while before the incident. They were all very good friends and spent most of their free time together." Ikuko seemed to have fond memories of these people- but I didn't care for how exactly.

"…How about the rest of them?"

"The one next to your sister is Satoko Houjou. Her parents and her older brother died a long time ago. The one wearing the hat is Rena Ryuugu. She was one of Mion's good friends and she always thought your sister was incredibly cute."

"And what about the guy?"

"That's…Keiichi Maebara. He only came to the village about a month before the incident. It was simply bad timing for the poor boy."

"I see…"

My eyes drifted to my ever radiant sister and then towards Sonozaki. That woman had killed such a pleasant and innocent child and all of her friends. She'd done terrible things to all the people in the picture- and she may have gotten away with it.

I wanted to know- no, I _needed _to know.

I needed to know the truth.

"I'll do it." That was all I said.

* * *

><p>And so I sealed my fate. It wasn't really the best decision I could've made at the time, but I went with it. I couldn't turn back after that.<p>

I became more in tune with what had happened there as a whole. I began to learn more and more things about my sister and her friends.

Satoko was the rather energetic one. She was fond of making traps that she would make use of in Sonozaki's club activities. She acted somewhat more immaturely than my sister did, but on the inside she was a loving younger sister. I feel really sorry for her _and _her brother. She went through so much suffering as a child, and her brother was part of the reason why she was able to wake up in the morning half the time. Although Keiichi did a decent job of replacing him, she was still never really the same.

But speaking of Keiichi – the latecomer to the village, and ultimately the most prominent of these children. He was pretty damn lucky, being surrounded by girls almost every day in that village, but that aside he's just something else. Ikuko's stories about him were the most prominent – the Magician of Words, as he was called. He was a fighter, in the sense that he never gave into things like fate and always put others before himself. He would have gladly given himself up in exchange for any of the others in that group of theirs, but in the end it didn't matter. I'm certain he was a fighter to the end, however.

See, now that's the kind of guy I'd want to be. I have no real idea who I was prior to now, but in the end I wished I was someone like Keiichi.

But then came the twins – the two jade demons, who were so similar in appearance but so vastly different when it came to pretty much everything else. Out of the two of them, one was born a normal girl while the other was born a cold blooded killer.

Shion Sonozaki, who was in theory the elder of the two despite how their name scheme worked, was the former. In the end she was only ever really guilty of falling in love. Ikuko wouldn't give me solid details, but in the end I didn't think it would be just to pry into the affairs of the dead like that.

Heh, I'm one to talk. But I suppose uncovering deep dark secrets about a mass murder incident and ripping apart a dead girl's love life are two very different things.

Mion Sonozaki, the one with the gaze of a killer, was apparently not all that different. Being the younger she was slightly less mature, but she was apparently still willing to go to great lengths for others and had the semblance of a benevolent leader, even though her leadership abilities were pretty much condensed into that club of theirs. In all honesty, I couldn't see her in such a light. I'm probably the most biased person to give that kind of an opinion, though.

My sister Rika – Ikuko's memories of her were especially vivid, just based on how she could seem to recall things about her, but in the end she really didn't tell me much about her. All I knew about my sister was that she was one of the most loving children one could ever find. I could hardly press her for a single bad thing about her. I made myself feel proud. Even though I can't recall a single thing about her I'd certainly be damn proud to have a sister like that.

I decided from then on out that I would go about things as a Furude. That included being devoted to Oyashiro, the god that I knew nothing about.

It was all because of pride in a sister I couldn't remember. Now how shaky a resolve is that? Too damn shaky, if you ask me.

Moving on, Ikuko and Tohya were able to get me out of the area and out of sight, but after that they sort of disappeared on me. I wasn't sure where to go from there, but eventually I managed to get a hold of the money they had left me and I was able to get around somewhat more easily.

But there was still the problem of how I'd be able to blend in with society. After all, no one would just listen to whatever a complete stranger told them and take them seriously in the slightest. I needed to find some way to blend into society- me, a person who didn't even exist anymore. In the end I didn't think it was possible.

In the end I was afraid. Afraid that I would end up getting lost in this world that was so foreign to me- a world that I couldn't really grasp the nature of because it was so strange. I was afraid I'd be doomed to live whatever life I had left as a wandering vagrant.

I almost gave up. But then I told myself – that wasn't what Maebara Keiichi would do. He would keep on fighting to the end. If I so desperately wanted to be like him I had to tough these things out. It didn't matter how long it took, just as long as I managed to make it as far as I could go.

And then I met him- Rai Sumidera. The first person I could have considered to be my best friend. I can pretend all I want that he was just some random guy, but this is the truth. Figures that I'd be the one to kill him, eh?

We met so randomly I wasn't sure if he was just screwing with me or not. But he seemed genuinely interested in the enigma that I was- it was in his nature to be drawn to mystery and also in his nature to want to discern the truth from it. Clearly the guy watched way too much of Detective Conan, but hell, I really can't complain in the end. He befriended me rather quickly, and before I knew it he was visiting me at my rather shitty idea of a meet up spot behind some garbage dumpster almost every other day. But eventually he stopped visiting me by himself- he brought some friends with him- friends that were part of the original Watchers, a group that he explained to me was a group that lived for the mystery of the Hinamizawa Disaster. I'd at some point let slip that I knew people involved with it and eventually he decided that his whole group should know about it.

Eventually time went on and I realized that the Watchers were my ticket into the village. If they were so in tune with the mystery of the disaster that they wanted to correct the wrongly reported nature of the disaster then they were my allies- in other words, people I could theoretically trust.

I would take my chances. Because that was something Maebara Keiichi would have done. That would've been his first path to take. That was what I believed, and that's what I was going to follow.

But as time went on the group began to fall apart- people graduated and others simply quit. People lost hope- people accepted the fact that they wouldn't ever really solve anything as part of that group- people except for the two that Rai spoke so fondly of- Ayame, the adult supervisor, and Akihito, who was more or less Rai's best friend. At some point I realized that Rai couldn't live without them. He was just so obsessed with this all that he wouldn't be able to go on if he didn't have others to help him through.

But could they live without Rai? I thought so. If it ever came to a scenario like that, I doubt the poor guy would've lasted very long.

But that wasn't why I killed him. Seemed like that was where I was going with this, huh?

Rai was a bit too fragile for his own good- out of the two Sumidera siblings he was the weakest. His outward appearance was far more stoic- as in, the personality that I eventually took on myself. But when he was alone with someone as irrelevant as I was, he turned into someone who was quite the opposite. This issue was likely how his troubled past- one that he could reveal to me a bit more easily than he had to Akihito since the two of us were practically identical with the only exception being my hair wasn't as spiked- came to fruition- the event that set off his obsession with the village.

It was all the result of his sister, Yomi, who despite her outward positive appearance and nice personality broke the law more times than Rai could count. His sister was actually three years older than he was, but for appearances that the family decided on she would be a year younger in the eyes of the general public. She was relatively young looking so it was not that much of an issue. Rai himself was three years older than he publicly appeared to be, due to having been kept out of school for three years longer than he should have been as a child and his family wanting to preserve outward appearances. In other words, Rai was currently twenty, whereas he was supposed to be seventeen.

It all went down when Rai was thirteen, about seven years ago- but it all began long before that, when he was eight.

Yes, your math worked out correctly. It was the year of the Hinamizawa Disaster.

He found out that his sister was being sent away to receive a more private education, as their parents did not like the current school she was attending. She was able to pass a fourth grade student so there was little issue regarding her appearance. The only chink in the armor, as it was, was the fact that they sent her _there_ of all places.

She arrived in Hinamizawa that spring. But before too long it came to her family's attention that being in that village ensured that her life there would be constantly and consistently interrupted by the occult practices of the village. The private education that they had sought for her would be potentially spoiled, and by the time the summer set in, around May, she had been pulled out of the village and sent back home. But of course the story doesn't end there. Things got progressively more and more dire for her as time went on and, as she had been a resident of the village for an extended period of time, fell to that which Rai believed to have been the Hinamizawa Syndrome. To this day, I'm certain his sister, if she's even still alive at this point, likely still has the Syndrome and is likely still under its influence.

Eventually she progressed so far up the level scale that it came to the point where she would doubtlessly go insane- and took that insanity out on her brother. She tried to stop herself by begging him to kill her, since she knew she would never be able to do it herself. But instead her brother decided against that. He told me he was just too afraid to. But I knew better. He still believed that he could save her.

Once I made that apparent to him, he began to tell me the truth about the remainder of his story.

Time went on and his sister's obsession with her brother rather quickly transitioned to a sick sort of love.

She then attached herself to her brother, in more ways than one at that. She'd pull him out of school just to be with him. She'd constantly exclaim about how much she loved him. She'd always find herself hyperventilating whenever he tried to get away from her. Over the next several years it got worse, when the worst of it came about when Rai was thirteen. He began to lose a bit of himself overtime, and before he had even finished his story I had managed to reason out that who he was now was _drastically _different from who he used to be. For the next several years this went on. In the end his sister needed him to survive, and so Rai allowed himself to bend to her will regularly and in such a way that his parents would never find out.

But guess what- they found out. And Rai was essentially disowned from the family.

It's needless to say that his sister freaked out - big time. Eventually it got to the point where they were forced to send her away - to St. Lucia's Academy, where she likely still was. If only they knew that she had the syndrome like we did- it could prevent all kinds of trouble at that place. I can only hope nothing too crazy went on, but I guess it's a bit late now to be worrying about something that probably happened a long time ago.

Rai ended up being sent away. And part of him died in the process. His personality eventually degraded to what it was now. I'd like to have seen the old Rai - the one who wasn't forced into loving his sister. But perhaps that Rai was in fact the Rai that I came to be.

Rai's confession regarding his past was practically a confession of love. He'd told this to so few people I essentially had to guard the secrets of his past with my life. And here I am, divulging it to all of you. In the end, he'd probably be pissed off for all the crap I've done to disgrace him. Hell, prancing around in his skin is probably bad enough. That aside, I was told to keep his past a complete secret. I complied.

In the weeks that followed, many things happened. Rai apparently received a large number of letters from his sister in relatively short succession. It seemed that she was still around and still under the effects of the Syndrome. Half of the letters Rai received were practically illegible. He was forced to reply without addressing anything in the letters. Eventually, it came to the point where poor Rai was going to break. He couldn't sit around, getting these letters from his sister. He had to do something - he aspired to resolve his sister's syndrome, and he would do anything in order to do that.

That was his motivation for going to Hinamizawa. To save his precious sister. It's sad - in the end he never got do so himself. In some way I find myself responsible for saving her in his place. But for all I know she killed herself after the news got to her.

Time marched on. Rai realized that his plans were all for naught. He continued to visit me on a regular basis. He always had something to complain about. Over time he went from a demure and fragile boy into a bitter and cold one. He became the satirical piece of shit that yours truly imitates to the best of his ability.

Eventually he just gave up on everything. It was that simple. Realizing that he could never save his sister, that his friends had all either abandoned him or betrayed him the same way he'd betrayed them, that there was no way he could put the past behind him considering how fucked up he was - He just gave up.

In the end, he told me to meet him in some really far off and seemingly abandoned graveyard. The gravestones were all either incredibly old or simply nonexistent. It was a graveyard that hadn't been visited or maintained for years. I found he had already dug a fresh hole.

Then he told me to kill him. And so I did. That was the very last time I was able to glimpse the old Rai Sumidera.

That's that. Pretty lame story, huh? It really wasn't important how I killed him or why I did. All that matters is that I did.

In the aftermath, I saw a perfect chance. Rai had probably seen a similar chance. He'd given me a chance to become part of real society - to carry on in his place, so that the name Rai Sumidera could have some credibility to it. As a result, I buried a nameless corpse and I assumed the existence of Rai Sumidera. In the end I guess I became him in more ways than one - I really don't know who Riku Furude used to be. I can't even remember what I was like before becoming Rai. Hell, for all I care, this is who I've always been. But I have always remained Riku Furude, even though not on the exterior.

Before I killed him, I made a promise with him - that I would never step foot in that village. He might have wanted me to carry on in his place, but he certainly didn't want me going there. It's unfortunate that I had no intention of keeping that promise, although looking back on things I would be a hell of a lot better off if I did. I really should've listened to him. He was soft spoken and rather weak, but the guy was damn smart.

Looking back on him now, I think I realized why he wanted to die so terribly. He realized that the truth has no meaning. The truth couldn't save him from his downward spiral, nor would the truth save his sister. Since he had made it his life's purpose to find the truth and expose it, he no longer saw a reason to live. It was all so horribly tragic.

But back then I didn't care. Instead, I decided to seek out the truth myself. But instead of being to save Rai's sister, it was to avenge mine.

At the outset of the entire plan there were two people in The Watchers who knew my identity- Ayame and Akihito. Yes, he knew who I was. He knew the real Rai was dead. But that didn't stop him from accepting me as the new Rai, since the two of us were simply identical in practically every way. As for why he wasn't in on the whole plan - he was. He knew we were planning on killing the remainder of the members. But in the end we decided that he would have to die as well. After all, anyone who knew that Rai Sumidera was dead needed to die.

As for why Ayame was ever so loyal - it turns out that the woman was easily breakable. There was very little I had to do in order to convince that woman to follow me to the ends of the earth. She's a bit of a story in general.

You see, she was originally not all that different from Rai. She was forced to grow up under rather harsh conditions. I don't know the bare bone details but let's just assume that things got really ugly for her as a child. Her unhealthy life at home basically started to seep into everything else that she did, and in the end she was the ultimate sort of failure.

Eventually she was married off to some foreigner, but even then her past never left her and her failures as a parent and as a wife managed to take hold. The marriage hadn't been consensual on either side of the spectrum but at least she could have the opportunity to prove herself to someone else. But considering how that didn't work out all that well for her it's not difficult to piece together why she was divorced rather swiftly and essentially left for dead as her parents no longer wanted anything to do with her.

Along comes a job opportunity that an old friend from her high school managed to give her. And along comes our favorite emotionally damaged adolescent teenager who desperately needed someone to rely on. She had another chance, and no matter how often she believed that she would screw things up yet again Rai never complained about her in the slightest.

She eventually built a mask around her new existence. That was the only reason why an adult would be so willing to bend to the will of children – because they needed her almost as much as she needed them. She seemed to have become a productive member of society at last.

But the second those who relied on her were to disappear, her mask would shatter entirely.

In the end, she has no relevance to anything, or at least she doesn't as far as I'm aware of. She joined Rai at the beginning simply because she wanted someone to depend on her. In the end all I had to do was exploit that and she was willing to die for me. Of course it was required that I pretend to be in love with her, since she already knew that Rai and I were not the same person. That was the basis for our contract – a love based on that sole and singular condition, so she could be expended whenever I found it necessary. Aren't I an asshole? It was an opportunity, and the single opportunity I would have. Maebara Keiichi certainly would've done the same thing.

Ayame was a wasted life. A life wasted because someone else decided that she was trash from birth.

It's because of stories like hers that I have to admit that I really just hate the things that people can do to each other. But enough about that.

In the end, the plan itself was a complete success and a complete failure. But perhaps I should go into detail about that plan, since I know you didn't understand a damn word about what happened last time.

The operation would be fairly simple. Go into Hinamizawa, find out exactly what happened, determine the who and how of the incident, and kill all of the others to revive the Oyashiro-sama curse. With new bodies, those that knew about the curse would be able to more readily believe in it again. Hinamizawa would be revived. The god that my family worshipped would be revived. Ayame would readily die at that point, given how if I deemed it necessary she wouldn't object to it. She additionally agreed to kill Akihito. In the end she concluded that as long as she could prove to be useful to me, she would do anything.

I'm not proud of myself. In fact, I might just hate myself now.

But then Miyumi happened. And with her added into the equation things got a hell of a lot more complicated. How so? I fell in love with her, that's how so. I'd become Rai Sumidera a bit too completely, and in the end it came to bite back. And pretty damn hard if I do say so myself.

Just so you know – I would never lie about Miyumi. Anything I've ever said about her was true, including everything I felt and thought about.

So knowing that, you might want to go back and figure things out for yourself one last time if you haven't already. I'm not going anywhere anytime soon, believe me.

Anyhow, about Miyumi- I never once considered her to be part of the plan. Hell, if I could've avoided it I would've taken her away from that place. In fact, I _was_ goingto avoid it and I _was_ going to take her away from that place. That was part of the reason why Ayame absolutely had to die- she certainly wouldn't approve. She certainly would've wanted to complete the plan to its completion- especially after I forced her to kill the other person who she managed to feed off of. Akihito and Rai were the only two who she could have depend on her. They were the only two who made her into more of a success as an adult. And lo and behold both of them ended up dead. The false sort of love that I had established between the two of us would almost as surely collapse, and once she realized I'd essentially played her for all of her worth there would be no more acting. She would almost without fail turn on me in that scenario. But luckily I convinced her to dispose of herself before I could confirm Miyumi's death for her. It all could've worked out.

Then it turned out the evidence I had gathered and the signs I had seen were in fact not just a figment of my imagination and she was Mion Sonozaki. _Fuck that idea_.

I don't want to talk about her anymore.

In the end it turned out we got both of our initial goals accomplished. The only problem being that things took a turn for the worst right around there.

But as for the who and how – well, I guess I shouldn't try to keep you in suspense for much longer. I'm certain you want to know exactly what it was that I found in that school building that was so important.

Well now you'll know.

It was a book. More specifically, it was a diary. A diary written by Rena Ryuugu, one of the characters of this whole story that I was the least familiar with.

The diary itself had only one entry. It was an entry that was about seven pages long. Given the contents I could tell that she had likely gone crazy, but the writing in the diary was more than enough to answer the questions that I had.

_Don't trust the director, don't trust the director. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_It was gas, it was gas. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Not an accident, not an accident. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_She killed us, she killed us. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Run away, run away. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Killed my mother, killed my father. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Killed Kei-chan, killed Kei-chan. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Killed Shii-chan, killed Shii-chan. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Killed Satoko-chan, killed Satoko-chan. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Killed Rika-chan, killed Rika-chan. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Killed everyone, killed everyone. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Actually, I killed everyone. Miyo Takano is the culprit.  
><em>_Cicadas know, cicadas know. Miyo Takano is the culprit._

That repeated for a whole seven pages. Even now I'm not sure what the last two lines mean. Perhaps she was forced to kill her friends off one by one, or maybe she was forced to sell them out or something along those lines. Not much of a solution in the end, but I now knew the truth.

The so called natural gas leak – it had been a purging of the villagers, and it had been carried out by a woman named Miyo Takano, who had apparently personally killed all of those who I was familiar with from Ikuko's stories.

But does that mean that Mion Sonozaki was not involved? Absolutely not. After all, from that list of names that identified her friends, the abbreviation for Mion, Mii-chan, was not present.

How did I know that was the abbreviation? Because I'd heard it said before by another village survivor. The fact that she was a village survivor, plus the near fool proof conclusion that Miyumi was Mion, led me to that conclusion. Miyumi confirmed it for me anyhow.

But it's not like something like that could help anyone now. Especially considering how I can't even reveal the truth and expect to be believed now.

Long story short - I got arrested on the charges of all of the killings. So no curse. Furthermore, Hinamizawa was even more thoroughly locked down. So no revival. So here I am, awaiting an interrogation that I know won't end well for me. They'll either have me executed for murder or lock me up if I'm crazy enough.

_Fuck_.

That's how things have gone up to this point, but I know that the more time I spend in this cell the more hopeless the situation outside is going to get. If my attempt to revive the village ended in failure then there's the simple issue of how the bodies ended up where they were. The only evidence I had on me was the knife coated in Ayame's blood, while my katana had seemingly vanished out of thin air. As the knife Akihito had been stabbed with was just as gone, and given how my aforementioned katana was still missing, they could not prove that I had killed any of the others, and so they could not reveal details to the general public about how the murders had occurred. My plan had succeeded – to an extent. People might have believed in the curse, but the fact that I was Ayame's official murderer made potential believers far more skeptical. The possibility that I was just hiding the murder weapon was far more likely than the revival of an old village curse.

But bottom line – people will start freaking out. And if things get worse, as apparently they have although I'm not entirely sure of the details, my plan might just work out after all.

I've been rotting in this cell for some really extended period of time. It hasn't been _weeks _or anything like that, but I've been here for quite the amount of time. I was asked questions by a police officer who informed me that I'd be executed on charges of murdering Ayame, but the questioning pretty much went in the direction of 'how the hell did you kill everyone else.'

The hours went on by as I continued to mull over my situation. If I were Maebara Keiichi, how would I wriggle out of this sort of situation? Certainly, someone like him would be able to do something as outrageous as that. On top of that, I am Furude by blood. And I'm not the dumbest guy in the world either.

I had two images to live up to, when all was said and done. I had to live up to the history of Maebara Keiichi and to the name of Furude.

But unfortunately I was pretty damn close to not living in general. But there surely had to be a way to resolve things.

I thought back to some stories I'd read while going to that school. Fictional characters had made their way out of tight spots like this before. Of course this was reality and therefore much less governed by plot. But in the grand scheme of things I considered myself to be a pretty damn big plot device, so I figured – why the hell can't I apply what I've read to a life or death scenario?

Of course thinking about what I'd read in the past brought about many memories of Miyumi – ah, I mean, Mion Sonozaki during the time that we weren't trying to rip each other's hearts out.

My memories of her continued to be ever so vivid. I'd been Rai Sumidera for far too long, and it certainly did ruin me in the end. I was supposed to be Riku Furude first. But I loved being Rai Sumidera first.

Of course Miyumi loved Rai Sumidera as much as I did. But it turned out in the end that we both hated our true selves. Oh well.

I recalled various times that we'd read books together, most likely for the Literature class we were taking. Of course she expressed genuine interest in some of the material and seemed to have all kinds of vulgar things to say about the material that she didn't. We'd talk about it all the time, really. We'd even talk about such things during our group meetings. It was all in good humor, even if some of it was a bit dry.

And then she tried to chop my head off with an axe.

I could remember reading through some of those long English stories. I'd read plenty of Sherlock Holmes, given how she seemed to love that series to death. Her favorite book from that chunk of foreign history seemed to be Hamlet though. She loved how nonsensical the deaths were and seemed to enjoy it just for a tasteless laugh or two. Given how that was her favorite story, it goes without saying she hated English lit. I remember how Akihito was drafted for a rendition of Romeo and Juliet and he would have to memorize lines during our meetings. Those would drive her crazy. I'd occasionally poke fun at her about it once in awhile, but she never got as irritated as I ever wanted her to.

And then she spat in my face and basically said that all of our memories amounted to nothing in her eyes.

I tried to shake the image of her face stuck in that twisted smile from my memory. I wished I could conveniently have amnesia again. I really don't want to remember any of that.

As I sat there I tried to dwell on my more positive memories of her, given how striking her from my record entirely was nigh impossible.

I tried to remember the names of books we had read together – anything at all that could take my mind off of things.

Then it came to me rather suddenly.

"…Hamlet, eh?" I whisper to myself as I sat there in the cell.

Hamlet – a play in which the protagonist pretends to have gone insane for the sake of discovering the truth.

Now, there's an idea. In my case, however, pretending to be insane would be my method of covering up the truth.

And so I decided that I would pretend to be insane the second I was asked further questions.

I didn't have to wait very long. Through the window by the door to the cell I could see what appeared to be a man in a lab coat striding down the hallway to my room, which was at the very end but right across from the door leading to the main section of the station. I could always see people who were coming and going this way. It served to be a tactical advantage of sorts.

The man in the coat seemed to have been unescorted, but then it came to my attention that there were two officers stationed right outside my room the entire time. So my potential plan to knock out the doctor and get out that way wouldn't really work out unless I wasn't concerned with being shot in the face on the way out.

He opened the door to my cell rather casually and did not take so much as a single step into the room. He just stood there, studying my expression for quite awhile before he finally gave me what I believed to be the most artificial smile I've ever seen in my entire life.

"Who the hell are you?" I try to be as rude as feasibly possible. Rude and insane speech patterns would get me in prison for sure.

"Ah, right, I need to give you my name." The smile seemed to corrode away bit by bit as a rather nervous sort of expression formed on his face. "Uh, I'm Doctor Vaughn. Markus Vaughn. I'm somewhat new around here, so don't mind me all that much."

"Are you here to talk to me about the killings or about my monthly check-up?"

"Quite a mouth you've got."

"If you have time to comment on how ridiculously rude I'm being to you then you have time to ask your damn questions." Still rude. I won't start acting insane until I get asked some questions. I'll go completely nuts then.

"I'm not here to ask questions. I'm here to give you a statement. You're being moved to the hospital that I'm working at. You're going to be questioned by the doctors there."

"Really now? Did they figure out that I'm completely nuts yet?"

"That's what I'm assuming. You don't seem particularly crazy, but…Given your initial testimony about some curse, we've decided that your testimony needs to be looked at by people who actually know how this sort of thing works."

Without another word the two police officers roughly grab me by the arms and carry me off down the hallway. I was fairly certain that the reason why they didn't cuff me right then and there was because they pretty much understood that I knew there was no escape.

Before I knew it I was rushed into a car and driven off in some direction. Going outside for the first time in days wasn't the best experience in the world. The sun practically blinded me right then and there. But the car was relatively shady. The windows acted as shades and so the intensity wasn't so bad. My eyes took awhile to adjust but when they did I saw the doctor sitting across from me. He didn't say a single word the entire ride. There were two men in the car as well, one on either side of me. They didn't say anything to me either.

The entire ride, a perfectly good opportunity to drag answers out of me, turned into a completely uneventful thing. There was really no reason for this, which was why I ended up being quite a bit dubious of the whole thing. I was beginning to realize, bit by bit, that I wasn't being taken to a hospital for the same reasons that I had been arrested.

Before I knew it the car came to a complete halt. I was once again hoisted into the air by my forearms and I was dragged out of the car and back into the dreary afternoon. My eyes needed to fix to the light once again, as despite the heavy concentration of clouds that damned sun was still shining as brightly as ever. I wasn't entirely sure exactly how many times this would repeat, and so I pretty much just spoke my mind.

"Are we there yet?" That was the snidest comment I could come up with.

"More or less." Dr. Vaughn sounded bored out of his own mind as well.

I was carried across the street and towards a very small looking clinic on the street corner. In this section of Shinjuku, or at least what I believed to be Shinjuku from my brief stay there, this so called hospital did not stand out in the slightest, compared to the much larger buildings and the much larger hospital that I could see from the street this hospital was on.

It was all so strange. It was as if this hospital weren't a hospital at all. Or at least it was a really crappy hospital that probably doesn't get any patients.

I was dragged inside the building and got a look at the interior. My estimate wasn't all that far off. The building was practically empty aside from the receptionist at the desk and the occasional nurse or two that I passed as I was led down the hallway towards wherever they were going to take me. The walls were pure white, and there were no pictures or anything of the sort to decorate them. The entire building was _very_ dimly lit. The hallways were incredibly dark, which made the pure white walls seem a bit more of a grey shade in certain spots. The floor was missing tiles in random places, revealing just as pure white woodwork in the openings.

It was all so decrepit I pretty much gathered before I was even led to the elevator – an elevator in a two story building, none the less – that this wasn't a hospital.

The entire elevator ride was just as wordless as the rest of my time in the hands of these strange people. The doctor remained ever silent as we descended from the first floor to what I believed to be the second basement level – a basement level that I was certain shouldn't have even been there.

"So do you like what you see?" Dr. Vaughn actually said something to me.

"Where are we _really_ going?"

"Just to the lower level. Hospitals are supposed to have lower levels, aren't they?"

"Yeah, when the hospital is more than two stories high and actually has stuff going on in said lower levels."

"Surely you've figured it out by now."

"That this place isn't a hospital?"

"That what you saw up above is just our cover. Designed it myself."

"So is _that_ why the walls are falling apart?"

"Hey, watch it. I'm not looking to make any enemies."

"You certainly have a bad way of showing it."

He laughed rather heartily before falling back into silence. The elevator continued to descend for some long duration of time and eventually the doctor spoke again.

"Yeah, you're right. I have a bit of a thing with being an asshole."

Before I could respond, the elevator doors open.

As the two men begin to move me again, he speaks once more.

"But if that sort of thing pisses you off, then you're not going to like it here."

A rather snide remark. Puts my whole plan of being an asshole to shame.

I was eventually led through another crappy looking hallway into what I believed to be the real hospital.

* * *

><p>The walls, ceiling and floor were made of solid steel. I could see my reflection in all three of them. There were no windows to speak of, but there were doors. And by doors, I mean <em>tons <em>of doors. Hundreds of doors stretched out both in front of me and behind me as I was led down the corridor that didn't seem to have an end – or rather I just couldn't see the end because of the blinding white light that protruded from the light fixtures. Clearly the poor excuse for a hospital upstairs had such poor lighting because the bulk of the electric bill was covered by this hallway.

Eventually I could make out what appeared to be a large door that I was proceeding closer and closer to. I had a strange feeling that my destination would be on the other side of this door.

The men dropped me rather abruptly and I nearly tripped over. One of them opened the door while the other pushed me inside.

The room inside was practically so white that I couldn't tell where the walls were. One could say that this room was entirely faceless. Turning around, I couldn't even really tell where the door I had just walked through was. All that was tangible in this room was the iron chair that sat in the middle and the iron chair that sat across from it.

In one of the two chairs was a man, roughly thirty by appearance, who was wearing what I found to be the dirtiest black coat I had ever seen in my life. The coat was so worn it looked like it could fall apart at the slightest tug. The man wearing it was in just as bad shape. His beard wasn't long but was incredibly messy. His hair was about as grey as his beard and his eyes were as black as the coat. His color scheme was thrown off by the red tie, but then again red and black apparently went well together.

"Sit down." He commands. The look on his face was so stern that I was practically intimidated into doing as he asked me.

But as soon as I did his expression lightens. Significantly. Just before he broke out into a rather low chuckle.

"Ah hah. So the intimidating look works on you. I'm a bit surprised, considering what I knew about you…I'm beginning to think they gave me the wrong guy."

The very first words that came out of this man's mouth made me loathe him and everything he stood for. "Just who the hell are you, now?"

"Oh, I see. They _did _send me the right guy." He laughs once again. This man had just made quite possibly the most life-lacking expression I've ever seen in my life – which is saying something since I've seen a whole lot of life-lacking expressions – and now he's laughing his ass off like I'm some kind of clown.

"That aside, my legal name is Reiji Nakamura. My illegal name is Oishi Kuraudo."

I knew that name. I knew it very well. But I tried not to act surprised. Doing so would certainly give this man the upper hand. The moment I heard his name I knew that this was an interrogation. I knew for certain that the man with the name Oishi Kuraudo wouldn't have been involved with something like this for any other reason.

"Legal name?" I was actually somewhat curious as to what that meant. I knew this man by the name Oishi Kuraudo – but not by Reiji Nakamura.

"Because Oishi Kuraudo is supposed to be serving the next ten years in a maximum security prison. I'll still answer to 'Oishi' now and then, but sometimes I'll forget what my other name's supposed to be." His expression was as relaxed as it had been while he was making fun of me.

"Why?" I didn't expect to get an answer.

"Because he helped someone fake her death, embezzled one million yen from the Tokyo company, and assisted in a bank robbery that scored him seven hundred thousand yen that authorities still have yet to find. And to top it off the only reason why he's still around is because he was needed for a job like this." His expression was still as unchanging.

"I see…" I didn't try to push him any further on the subject matter. Clearly this was the Oishi Kuraudo I was familiar with. And I was here solely because I had been in Hinamizawa when the new set of killings happened.

"I'm not the only one working at this joint who has some history like that. I'm pretty sure that everyone you'd ever meet at a place like this has something to hide – their real names included."

I began to wonder if Dr. Vaughn was the same way. Given how he was clearly Japanese, an English name like that was a bit unsuitable.

"I wouldn't be surprised. But _you _– working here?"

"It's not that bad being an interrogator. I get to yell at people. Even my own co-workers if need be."

"Doesn't sound like fun to me."

"Work isn't supposed to be fun. Not that I hate this job or anything. It's to die for, honestly."

He studies my face for a few minutes without so much as saying a single word. His gaze was so resolute and appeared so unbreakable that I didn't even dare to question the break in the conversation.

"Alright, so let's get down to business." He eventually spoke again. I was ready for anything, or so I hoped.

He reaches into his coat pocket – and pulls out some sort of a revolver.

"You have exactly sixty seconds to tell me what you were doing there and how your friends died. If you take a single second more I'll shoot you for dead. Your time starts now."

Ah, of course. Get me to divulge the truth, since I can't spend the time to come up with a lie. It was crude and somewhat flawed in reason, given how people might even forget what really happened with a gun pointed to their skull, but it was a _very _effective tactic to use on someone like me.

But I had the entire ride to the hospital to compose my story. I knew going into this that my whole pretending to be insane plan wasn't going to work. Especially not on Oishi Kuraudo. Perhaps the reason why I wasn't questioned further was because Dr. Vaughn was trying to give me a fighting chance.

Would I thank him for it? Hell no. But at least I was able to divulge my fake story in the time allotted to me. It didn't matter what I told him. It was all a lie.

"Let's try this again." Oishi tosses the gun to the side and instead reaches into his other coat pocket and draws out a really sharp looking knife. It was pretty much the closest thing to a legitimate dagger that a regular knife could get.

"This time you have twenty seconds. Tell me what you were doing there. Else I'll slit your throat where you sit."

Twenty seconds were certainly not enough. But I needed to think of something…

I have to think of something, and I will. Because that's what Keiichi would do. He would find a way out of this. Certainly, he would.

The clock was ticking. But suddenly it hits me.

He doesn't give a damn about what I was doing in Hinamizawa. He doesn't care for any of the killing that went on there. He isn't the type to. He could care less about anything that happened in the village – if he was called in, based on what I know about him, he just wants to know what I found. He was part of the original Hinamizawa examination. So regardless of whatever it was I went there for all that mattered was that I was there – in the forbidden village that, if I am not mistaken, cost him his badge and his position as a detective for his failure to follow orders.

"Why don't we just skip the interrogation and I just tell you what you _really _want to hear?" I speak with what I believe to be about five seconds left.

He lowers the knife.

"Speak."

"It was a set up."

"I know that already."

"Then what do you want from me?"

"I want to know _which twin survived!" _ He raises his voice. He now resembles that stern man that I initially saw when I entered this room.

I was almost shocked. He knew that there was a Sonozaki with me. I had already gathered that her body had never been found. So then how would he have known?

"I'm sorry?" I try to play dumb.

"Don't try to talk your way around me. I've been around far too long to fall for a weak trick like that. Now tell me."

"…Mion. Mion Sonozaki."

For a moment he grits his teeth, but in another moment he laughs. "I see, so you _were _told. Knowing that…"

He raises the knife again, almost pressing it directly against my throat. It would likely draw blood anyhow.

"Alright, you have eighty seconds this time. Tell me about yourself. And don't give me that Rai Sumidera bullshit. I know that kid's been rotting in a pit since November."

So it was true. They had found him. Eh, I wasn't good at hiding bodies to begin with. But I have to hand it to whoever dug through that huge hole.

Again, there was no sense in lying to this man.

And so I told him the story of Riku Furude. I left out the more personal details, of course, but I made mention of everything that tied me to the events of 1983.

I even brought up how I was the biological brother of Rika Furude. But to that he gave me a reaction similar to the one Mion had given me.

"Rika Furude's…Brother?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"…Tell me, when did you 'wake up' as you put it?"

"In early September."

"And who told you Rika Furude had a brother?"

"I…Don't remember."

"…I see."

He studies my face for another few moments.

"…It must be you."

"Huh?" I wasn't entirely sure of what he had just said.

"It looks like the situation has changed. Mion Sonozaki's final actions prove it."

"What are you talking about?"

"I can tell you right now. Riku Furude does not exist."

In a rather casually delivered statement he manages to deny all that I am.

"What?" I really can't come up with a better way of describing what I'm feeling.

Did he really just insinuate that I'm not who I say I am? More importantly, is he saying that I'm not who I have believed myself to be all this time?

"You have valuable information. You claim to be someone you can't be. But you don't seem to be lying to me…"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's simple." He snaps his fingers and as he does so the door behind me swings open. The two men file into the room and almost immediately proceed to tie me down to the chair. I try to struggle for a few moments before I realize it was futile to try and resist whatever it was Oishi Kuraudo had planned for me. "You can't remember. And so we will force the memory out of you."

My mouth was covered with a chloroformed cloth. I tried to fight inhaling for as long as I could, but eventually I surrendered to the chemicals. My vision swam as I lost consciousness rather quickly.

I wasn't certain of what would happen next, but certainly it would be something terrible. That was the sort of thing that Oishi Kuraudo would have lying in wait.

* * *

><p>I woke to find my vision obscured by what I believed to be a blue plastic bag of some sort. It was pressed up tightly against my skin and so I assumed that it was a bag that covered my entire head. I tried to move around, only to find that my arms and legs were bound to some degree. I tried to struggle, but I soon realize that this was part of Oishi Kuraudo's plan and as such it would be meaningless to try and escape.<p>

"Ah, I see you've woken up." He spoke with a tinge of malice in his voice. "You might be wondering why you're only seeing blue right now. Well for one we've got a light positioned about a foot away from your face. For another, we're going to force you to remember the things that you can't. And that bag is part of the process."

"What the hell are you planning?"

"It's simple. I've finally figured out how your brain works."

"How so?" I still try to act calm even though the situation doesn't call for it.

"You died once, back in 1983. So I'm going to kill you again. And then we'll see what happens."

"_What?_" I don't believe what I'm hearing.

Oishi planned to kill me – so I would give him the information he wanted?

"It's simple. I can kill you, boy. I can kill you in more ways than actually killing you."

"Are you going to keep talking in bullshit riddles or are we going to get something accomplished here?"

"I don't want to rush things. My plan might not accomplish the goals I want to anyway."

"Wait, you're not even sure if this will work?"

"Of course not. I've never tried to bring a dead man back to life by killing a living man in the dead man's body. But maybe doing things this way will trigger some old memories of yours and no one will have to die."

"You sound awfully reassured for a theory you have no backing for."

"I'm not experimenting on myself. That's the only amount of reassurance I get out of this."

A rather self centered statement. It's only to be expected of Oishi Kuraudo.

"But since you've gone and acted smart, I'm going to get things underway. Roll on one."

In that instant I felt a torrent of water suddenly rush over me. The light above me dims out, and I am left in a darkened space.

Oh _fuck no. He isn't going to do this to me, is he?_

"I'm sure you're familiar with this technique. I'm sure you've seen plenty of bodies with bags over their heads in the Sonozaki cellar. Those are people who don't make it through this."

_This lunatic... I swear to god the second I break out I'm going to kill him oh god I'm going to kill him he's going to pay for doing this to me….! _

There we go. There's the drowning effect I was expecting. I begin struggling purely off of bodily reflex.

"Here's the plan. Once you remember, and I'm sure you'll know when you remember, just start shaking your right arm and your right arm by itself. If you do and you don't know anything, I'll just kill you. Fair enough? Good."

Water boarding. Drowning someone without drowning them. Making their bodies believe a lie – a lie that ends up killing them.

But this certainly won't work on me. I'm far too intelligent to believe such a convenient lie. But that's the torture of it all. My body won't comply. And when my brain prepares itself to shut down the other half of my brain isn't going to be able to support itself.

But it still hurts like hell. I'm drowning, but there isn't an end to it. There's no running out of air because there isn't any shortage of air in this situation. It's just the water. The water pouring over my face, as if I'm drowning in a river.

I have to persevere. That's what Keiichi would do. He wouldn't succumb to this. He would fight to the end.

But as I lie there, struggling to break free, I find my vision clouding – I fade in and out of the blue of the heavy plastic bag and into a blue of a different sort.

It's the blue and blurry color of water – a river. I'm not sure how I know that but I do. My ears are seemingly plugged, as if I was underwater. I conclude that I actually am underwater. Did I…Fall into a river?

I am being carried by the water, in a sort of current. I am being dragged against my will, but I can't move my body.

I had fallen into a river and I was drowning. That was all I knew.

But eventually the rapids lead to an ending point. I find myself crashing into the riverbank. I try to hoist myself up, but I find it impossible.

But then something or someone grabs me and I am lifted up into the light.

But as my eyes attempt to focus on what I believed to be an outdoor environment, I suddenly lose all feeling in my body.

My eyes suddenly snap to an image – it was a scene, a scene from this memory I never even knew I had. I was still soaking wet, but I appeared to have been indoors some place.

A doctor with a relatively wide smile on his face was standing before me. I had never seen him before, but clearly I had.

"It's a shame. I thought dowsing you with something would've helped clear your head."

"You a-almost drowned me!" I suddenly shout with a voice that isn't my own.

"I'm sorry. I'll be more careful next time."

Another snap. This time I'm greeted to the image of a man I've certainly never seen before. I feel immense pain emitting from my lower abdomen.

"You wanna say that again, you little shit?" The man scoffs at me. I want to punch him square in the face for calling me a little shit.

"You have to stop doing this! Do you have any idea what damage you've done?"

The man hits me again. I let out a coarse cough.

What the hell? That wasn't even that hard a punch.

But as I stagger over, my eyes snap again. This time it is to a scene with Rika and Satoko.

They are speaking, but I can't hear a word of it. It's as if my ears are trying to shut out what they are saying. My body reacts as if everything is normal, however.

Eventually they move their way over towards me. I'm still as unsure as ever of what is going on, but I can feel my mouth moving and it would seem that I am speaking with them. I can't hear a single word of it – not even what I'm saying. At the end of the conversation they both seem to hug me at the same time.

But something else is wrong.

Rika doesn't have blonde hair. It is Satoko that does.

My eyes snap again.

A woman dead on the floor. Me standing over her.

I'm holding a baseball bat in my hands. The bat is incredibly bloody. It doesn't take all that much thought to piece together what happened here. I am panting heavily, still seemingly in a sort of adrenaline rush, likely from what I had just done.

I look around, but then my eyes drift to the mirror nearby. I gaze upon my bloodied form.

That face, without a doubt it is mine –

But –

At the same time –

It's his –

The woman who was dead on the floor suddenly wasn't dead anymore. I don't know how it was possible. But I turn and I run as fast as I can. I make it out of the building and down the street, but when I turn the corner she's right there waiting for me.

I keep running, but no matter where I go she's right there, and she keeps staring at me –

Oh why is this happening…How is this happening…Who is that even?

I trip and fall. I'm not sure where I was running but I finally stumble over.

I can see my reflection again.

I can see the vacant look in my eyes –

And then I knew.

My eyes snap again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

So many memories, all brought about by my torture. My experience of drowning in the river served as a trigger –

_Hi, *******-kun. I'm back again today._

My name. My real name. I hear my real name.

_I'm running out of books to read to you. But I'll find some way to keep things interesting._

_This story is a bit scary. It's actually about the Walpurgis Night. It's a demon festival. I don't know why we had this book on hand but it's all I could find._

_Eh, this story isn't so good. Sorry._

_I hope you don't find me annoying._

_After all, if you did, I'm not sure what else I could do for you._

_But I have to do something for you. _

_I love you, after all…_

And now I know

I'm remembering

everything

Oh god why is this happening why am I –

Falling to pieces –

_That's right. I'm no Riku Furude. _

_I'm not of any Furude blood. _

_So then I've got to be him._

_That's right – I'm Maebara Keiichi. _

_I've been him all along. _

_Who I was and who I am now – I've certainly come a long way, haven't I?_

_I almost drowned in the river. But Ikuko saved me._

_She lied to me, but I still fought for what I believed in._

_I didn't waste any time at all. _

_Yes, that's right, me._

_Maebara Keiichi. _

_That's who I am._

Get the fuck over yourself.

_No. We're Maebara Keiichi. _

No we're not.

_Yes we are._

No. We're not, we've never been, and we never will.

_That's not true._

Yes it is.

_No._

Yes.

_I am Maebara Keiichi. I look just like him. _

No, you're not. Face it. That's the reality of it all.

_No. I am Maebara Keiichi._

No, you're not.

_Then who am I? Won't you tell me?_

You already know.

_No, I don't. Tell me, please._

We're no one. We've never been anyone.

_But we were someone, weren't we?_

Maybe, but not in the way I've seen things.

_Then who might we have been?_

A coward. A coward who gave into his fear. A coward to gave into his fate. A coward that Maebara Keiichi simply isn't.

_And who is he?_

You have to know.

_I know, but will you accept it?_

Haven't I already accepted it?

_No. You haven't said it._

I don't need to accept it.

_Yes, you do._

But I don't want to. I don't want to be that person.

_Then who do you want to be?_

I want to be _me_.

_You?_

Yes.

_But weren't you no one to begin with?_

I became someone. I don't want to be anyone else anymore.

_You can't just do that. _

Why can't I?

_You know now without a doubt who you are. You know who you once were. You cannot reject him. Unless you wish to die as someone you're not._

…

_After all, isn't that what Keiichi would do?_

He was right. That voice in my head was certainly right. That voice that was doubtlessly just my own mind playing tricks on me.

I can run. I can try to run from who I am. As much as I would have wanted to be Keiichi, I simply can't be him anymore. Because, quite honestly, we were never the same to begin with. Keiichi and I are entirely different people, even though we look so similar.

I am not who I believed I was.

I have to accept that.

But I don't want to. I really just don't want to.

It's one thing to admit that I'm not Keiichi. But to admit to who I really was –

Then I suddenly hear that voice again – not the one in my head, but rather, that girl's voice.

_I'm sorry. _

_I've tried so hard, but there isn't anything I can do._

_All I ever wanted to do was to be with you._

_But that isn't possible anymore…_

_I've done so many things I hate myself for._

_But I did it all for you._

_And now – it isn't fair. _

_It's just not fair._

_But I'm never going to give you up._

_I'll die long before that._

_I love you too much…_

_Sa-to-shi -kun_

I suddenly snap back to my reality.

And to confirm it, I do as Oishi asked of me.

I start shaking my right arm rather violently. The flow of water finally stops. I was apparently dry drowning that entire time, but I had completely stopped feeling it.

The bag remains planted on my head, although I can hear Oishi's footsteps growing louder. I also hear him ready his revolver. What an ass this man is.

"So…?"

"...Heh."

"What's so funny?"

I start laughing. I start laughing for no apparent reason. But eventually my coughing fit stifles my laughter.

I wonder, what would Keiichi do? But I don't give a damn what he would do.

"I'm…I'm…" I can't say anything. Why the hell can't I say anything?

Oishi sighed with a tinge of frustration in his voice. "Oh well. It seems you aren't quite ready to speak your mind quite just yet. But without a doubt…I believe you've finally remembered exactly what I want to know."

I felt the restraints tying me down to the board release. The bag was not pulled off of my head, however.

"I will send you to a room on the upper level. You will stay there until further notice. You will be returned to the room we were in previously at that point."

I only grunted as a response.

"…You see, you've said some very interesting things over the course of the last day."

"Such as?" My speech is muffled through the bag, but he is able to hear me.

"…You claimed that Mion Sonozaki introduced herself to you as Mion Sonozaki."

I nod my head, my eyes still trying to adjust to the room.

"But you see…Mion Sonozaki was confirmed dead in 1983."

"…What?" I finally manage to speak. My voice is terribly hoarse, but it was coherent enough.

"And if she introduced herself to you as Mion Sonozaki…Well then there's some other force at work here…Now if only I could figure out what."

Once again I am hoisted by my forearms by the two men. They do not seem to care for my weakened physical state and they begin to move me with as much ferocity as they already had.

"Sleep well, Houjou Satoshi."

He said it. He said it. Dammit I _really_ didn't need to hear that.

He knew all along and yet he still… For fuck sake I want to kill him so badly. I don't care if I never kill a single person ever again, I just have to kill him…I just have to. That fucker is going to pay with his life…!

I try to struggle but the grip of those two men is simply too strong.

"I'll kill you." I snarled.

"I'm sure you will." I wasn't entirely sure if that was a joke or not, given how serious it sounded.

I am dragged out of the room, away from Oishi and towards the only period of rest I believe I am ever going to have.

I try to ignore everything he just said. All of it. I don't want to think about any of it anymore I just need rest. That's all. I am battered and beaten, both physically and mentally. I was so close to just falling asleep right then and there, but I had no idea if I would ever even wake up when if I did.

In the end I need all the rest I can get, however.

I have my memory. I have my old identity.

And because of that – everything has changed. Everything is going to change.

Because I can't even tell the lies from the truth anymore.

* * *

><p>I wake up to find myself in a hospital bed. Judging from the presence of windows and the shoddy nature of the room I'm certain I have been relocated to the top floor. I am very relieved. I don't want to go back down that elevator and into that room ever again.<p>

Once I am able to calm down, I almost unintentionally stop and start to think about things.

I'm not Riku Furude.

I'm someone else entirely.

I'm supposed to be Satoshi Houjou.

I was tricked. Ikuko tricked me. She lied about who I was. She lied about who my sister was. She lied. And people died because of it.

But can't I just keep on being Rai? Or did I blow my chances of being able to do that?

But all of these memories – all of these feelings that aren't even mine.

I can't comprehend them. I can't understand him. I can't understand who I used to be. All I know is that I lost everything, and I hate those who were responsible for it.

My uncle? Fuck him.

My aunt? I killed her, didn't I?

Miyo Takano? She killed my sister. She can go die in a fire too.

I had the Syndrome. But perhaps by dying I overcame it. But I had it, and it was because of them. I hate them, even though I don't understand a single thing about them.

Then came my sister and her friends. I was supposed to love Satoko, but just as things were with Rika, I could tell you that I did, but in the end I would never be telling the truth. I have memories of her, and feelings regarding her, but they feel so artificial that I can't understand them. I have memories – big fucking deal. I'm still not Satoshi, and I never will be.

But more importantly – everything up until now was all for naught.

I didn't accomplish anything by going into Hinamizawa. I failed miserably on every level.

People died, and it was my fault. I wasted lives. I killed far too many people to justify what happened as an end result.

But more importantly…

Miyumi. Mion Sonozaki. A woman who was committed to the earth in 1983. A woman who probably wasn't at all guilty of the things I once believed her to be guilty of.

The Sonozaki clan and their system of inheritance. A repressed memory. Information that I had come across in the past.

It was the one fact that I had yet to take into account.

But I didn't even need to think all that hard about it.

I tried _not _to think about it, actually.

Because now I knew. My vendetta against the Sonozaki family was misplaced.

Because I knew just who it was that I killed in Hinamizawa that day.

_That's right. The inheritance. The ritual. The tattoo._

_And what I saw. _

_I remember it so clearly… _

"_Sex with Miyumi probably was about as uncoordinated as could be. Not that either of us cared in the slightest. I'll be honest- I love absolutely every single thing about her. Her eyes, her more defined assets, her spotless back, her long and slender legs- everything."_

"_I'll be honest- I love absolutely every single thing about her. Her eyes, her more defined assets, her spotless back, her long and slender legs- everything."_

"_Her eyes, her more defined assets, her spotless back, her long and slender legs- everything."_

"_her spotless back"_

Fuck.

There's no way.

There's no goddamn way.

But there_ is_ a goddamn way.

It's the truth.

Without a doubt. My memory is accurate enough.

When I was asleep…After I contracted the syndrome.

Certainly, it must have been her…

Shion. Shion Sonozaki.

No, there's no way.

Even if I didn't know at the time, I told her to take care of Satoko.

Certainly, she must have protected her to the very end.

Even more importantly, that voice, the girl who read to me, the girl who always said she loved me – without a doubt, it was her.

And the things that happened…

There's just no way.

But it all makes sense. We enjoyed reading together, after all. I fell in love with Miyumi Satonaka. But in the end I just fell in love with Shion.

And then we tried to kill each other. Because neither of us knew.

"…Fuck everything." I swear to no one in particular.

Satoko suffered, and I tried to save her from suffering. But alone I could do nothing. I was weak. I was weak and I was a coward. I hate myself. I hate who I was. And it's bullshit that I have to pay for it now.

My sister, Satoko. If I were stronger, maybe things would have been different.

I'm stronger now.

But it doesn't matter now. I'm twelve years too late. Hell, even longer than that, now that I think about it.

…Perhaps I am Satoshi after all. Perhaps I _do _understand him and his plight. But it doesn't make a goddamn difference now.

It's useless. It's all so goddamn useless.

Why don't I just stop being alive? It's not as if I can accomplish anything.

Maybe I should just fall asleep and not wake up.

I don't give a shit if that isn't what Keiichi would have done. He's deader than dead. I'm not. So I don't have to be anything like him.

I sigh, and with that I try to fall back to sleep. I don't care what Oishi has in store for me. I really don't.

So I fall asleep, with no desire for any sort of a tomorrow.

* * *

><p>I find myself surrounded. Surrounded by people I've never seen before but people that I'm certain I know. I could count about six of them surrounding my hospital bed.<p>

One of them stepped forward. I almost flinched reflexively, but without any sort of a weapon I probably wouldn't last more than a few seconds if I chose the brute force route.

It turned out I didn't need to. The one that stepped forward kneeled in front of me like I was some kind of deity. He seemed to be very old. His body was frail looking and he had little to no hair. He was probably in his late sixties or early seventies.

"…We've come for you, Houjou-sama." The voice of the rather frail looking man rung out in the otherwise silent room. The others around him knelt down in a similar fashion.

He'd said that name. That name that I hate so damn much. That name that's going to follow me around like a shadow for the rest of my crappy life. I don't want to be whoever the hell Satoshi is anymore. Dammit, why the hell did he have to call me that? Houjou this, Houjou that- why the hell should I be called anything different? I'm _Rai_, god dammit. There's no reason for me to be Satoshi anymore.

"We've looked everywhere for you, Houjou-sama." Another spoke. It was a woman this time. Interrupt my thoughts, why don't you… "We were almost certain you were dead…But we've finally found you. We've been watching for the longest time, and we feared we may have had the wrong person under our watch, but now we know for certain…" Amongst the six I can make out the same two men who have been dragging me all over the place. Apparently they were on my side the whole time. Go figure.

"…Who the hell are you people?" My first response to them is wet with a bit too much spite. Well, it's not like they don't deserve it. Waltzing in here, calling me by that name…

The woman's head suddenly shot up. I really couldn't see her face, but it was likely a look of shock. The man in front of me turned toward her, raising his hand as if signaling her to refrain from acting.

"Kimiyoshi-san, please, remember he isn't himself right now." Oh boy, did he not even know the half of it.

The woman's head nodded slowly. It seemed she wasn't going to offer any more protest. But suddenly something clicked in my head- what the man had called her.

"Kimiyoshi…" That name sounded familiar. Ah, how could I possibly forget? I've only been chasing the shadow of that place for as long as I can remember. "…You can't all be-"

"Your suspicions are correct, Houjou-sama. We are all survivors of the disaster. Most of us were either away from the village or far enough away that the gas did not affect us."

Really now, did _anyone _die in 1983? There were enough survivors to make a whole new village.

"But the gas wasn't the cause, it was-"

"Don't feel the need to explain the truth to us. We are all aware that it was the work of humans, not gods."

"Then why the hell are you even here? Aren't you all supposed to be considered heretics by village customs? You all bailed out, right?"

My rather blunt statement was met with silence. Eventually, the woman from before spoke up.

"In all honesty, what you're saying is true. We all did leave the village permanently at some point. We do acknowledge that Oyashiro-sama does not exist." Her voice almost wavered before intensifying. "But now we have to defend the place where we were born. It's being overrun, Houjou-sama."

"…Overrun?" What the hell was she talking about? Who or what could possibly want to overrun a shithole like Hinamizawa?

"The village is being invaded. We are not entirely sure of who they are or why they are there, but the village has become a bloody hunting ground." Another man suddenly spoke. "They've already killed most of our kin."

"How many of you were there, exactly?"

"At one time, twenty. We are now six, with four in hiding amongst the public." The elder spoke.

"Ten guys? And what are you planning on doing?"

"We must recapture Hinamizawa."

"You're insane."

"And we need your help, Houjou-sama."

My eyes wide with shock, although the entire time I was expecting something along this line once I heard the word 'overrun.'

"My help?" I nearly start laughing. "What the hell can I possibly do?"

"Houjou-sama, please, listen to us!" The woman was now disregarding the nature of the conversation and almost started shouting at me. "You have to help us- we can't go back there without you! You're the only one of us who is remotely skilled as a fighter and a leader - without you we'd fall apart instantly -"

"And what if I don't want to?" I completely lose my temper. I decided to continue my rant given how I was met with silence. "Why the hell would _I _want to go _back _to that damned place? I just killed the only person I ever gave a shit about because of that whole cluster-fuck! Didn't my whole damned family die because of all of the bullshit that went on about that dam war crap?"

"Houjou-sama, please listen to-" The woman interrupts me yet again. I cut her off without another thought.

"And you - you're a Kimiyoshi! You're supposed to hate me, aren't you? Didn't my family sit through years of persecution because of that shit-storm your family started up? Are you just here to trick me into helping you all screw over more people?"

The woman does not respond. I would later learn she was crying at this point, but I couldn't tell in the poorly lit room. I might have ripped on them a bit less had I noticed. Eh, probably not.

"That village is the last place in the whole damn world that I want to be. Get the fuck out of my room and don't bother me again. Or just kill me now and save me the trouble of doing it later. Pick your poison."

The elder sighed. "Houjou-sama-"

"Call him Rai, Nagi." The nearly cracked voice of the Kimiyoshi practically whispered. Nagi was likely the name of the man in front of me. But that aside, it seemed that whatever image this woman had of Satoshi Houjou had completely shattered. "That's his name. Just call him that."

"…Very well then…Rai-san, I apologize for visiting you this way."

"You're damn right you're sorry." My voice is a tad less angry, but at this point I'm just trying to piss this guy off to the point where he'll just give up and kill me.

"…I must explain things from the beginning. Please, I beg of you- allow me to explain to you our most dire situation- the fate of what little honor our village has left is at stake here…!"

The man seemed honest. It wasn't like I had anything better to do, so I figured I'd let him say his piece. I give him a nod of approval and he starts his story that, somewhat obviously as these scenarios tends to turn out in popular fiction, makes me see things entirely differently.

"We first located you months ago. Several of our men observed your daily actions and determined that from your increased interest in the Hinamizawa Disaster that you were likely a strong contender to join our ranks. But as time passed we realized that you were something much more than that. But when that woman intervened - we knew who she was and what she was aiming to do, but we still did not act on our fears. Instead, we tried to draw you two closer together - it was all to see if your memories or her memories would return, as it seemed that neither of you had any idea who you were, although the Sonozaki must have known all along…I apologize for everything we failed to do." That explained the sudden traffic accident that I had made out to be sheer dumb luck.

"But then why did she lie to me about her identity?"

"That I do not know."

"Some help you are…" I don't make any further comment, thus prompting him to continue his story.

"It is as you say. We are a group of heretics- and even though we are a group of heretics, we desire to save Hinamizawa, but not in the name of Kimiyoshi or Sonozaki- simply in the name of Hinamizawa and what it was supposed to have stood for. Kimiyoshi-san was never involved with anything that went on in that village. She is simply here because she wants to save what little there is left of it like the rest of us are. We need you, simply because you are all that is left of that old world- you are the living testament to the suffering and destruction that went on in that village, and so you are the only one who can lead it to redemption."

"Redemption? You want to redeem a village that died out a long time ago?"

"If not for redemption- then perhaps for revenge?"

"….Revenge?"

"Our village was stolen from us by the work of a single person. We can argue over who that person was for years and years and never have a definitive answer. But whoever is in control now- whoever is leading this clan of demons… Certainly, they must be a product of that person…Furthermore…"

"Furthermore…What?"

"…I assume that by now, based on your question earlier, that you are aware of whom exactly it was that you killed during your last visit to Hinamizawa."

"Yeah, what of it?" I say something fairly stupid. I knew exactly what of it. That whole scenario was staged. My plot was being predicted by someone else's plot – and that someone wasn't in all likelihood part of this heretic group. It was a ploy to revive public interest and cult following for Hinamizawa. It actually stacked up with this so called invasion.

"Do you not wish to finally know the truth? Do you not wish to take revenge on those who betrayed you and those who made you suffer? Do you not wish to give your old name any lasting meaning? No matter who you are now, you were once Satoshi Houjou. You at least owe it to the boy who made your life possible."

I didn't really see anything wrong with what he was saying. I didn't like any of it, but I couldn't deny a word of what he was saying.

Suddenly, Kimiyoshi made some sort of movement. She placed something long on the bedspread near my right hand. One look at it told me all I needed to know. She was handing me a sword that I now had no right to use.

"Please…Even if just for his memory, please, help us…!"

…Well, why would I want to say no?

I grasp the sheath of the blade. Kimiyoshi's face seems to light up.

I move to sit up. The group clears out of my way as I do so. I sit on the edge of the bed.

_Sorry, Rai. It seems I'm going to break our promise twice. Some friend I am. Sorry, Shion. I can't fix things the way they are now. But don't worry…_

"Let me get something straight. I don't give a damn about who I was. I don't even give a damn about who I am now. All I know is that I've got the past of some family behind me, the present of a guy who can't even exist and naturally the future of someone who isn't going to be existing any time soon."

…_It'll all be over this time. I'll finish our stories…_

"So I'll make this clear."

_I'll finish everything. So you both can rest easy. _

"I'll go with you to Hinamizawa. I'll get you your village back."

_When the cicadas cry- everything will come to an end. That's how it's always been._

"I'll kill the one responsible for everything. I'll redeem the name you all cherish so much. I'll do it. For vengeance."

The elder nodded. Kimiyoshi nodded.

"…Let's go."

I began to walk, not really knowing where my legs would take me other than that they would put me in the direction of my ultimate goal. The heretics follow me out, as if I'm leading them as a Sheppard would a pack of sheep.

I will redeem you, Shion. I will redeem you, precious sister Satoko. I will redeem you, other self Satoshi. I'll redeem you all. I can be whoever the hell I want to be. But this is all that I can do.

Indeed, I can't avoid fate. I can't run from it and I can't hide from it. But I can beat the living shit out of it until it begs for mercy.

That will be my ultimate revenge.

* * *

><p>And so concludes the first answer arc. Note that there will not be any additional "Chapter Result" sections until the last arc is completed. Additionally, there won't be an additional report posted after this chapter.<p>

Moving onward, the next chapter will be a bit shorter than this one and as such will be released a bit sooner than this one was, that is assuming I don't suddenly have twenty things to do in the coming week. So I will leave you all on that note. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, at least to some extent.

UPDATE: Fixed a really dumb issue with the report.


	23. Bio Study Observation 04

Crap, I died again.

It hasn't been quite as long as my last break from the story, but it _has _been a lot longer than I said it would take for this next update to come about. Sorry about that.

Anyhow, moving on, we have the next set of solutions for the Chapter 2 side stories. But before I start that, since I mentioned how it was relevant and all, I have to point out instances where I might have made the Keichi typo and not intended to.

The only places where the typo _should_ be are in all of the side stories and the reports. If I'm going to use a plot device as absurd as that one I suppose I have to make that clear.

Aside from that, I'm almost certain I still have yet to correct several issues in the last main chapter. In fact, given how I for one don't like how a sizable chunk of it came out I might end up rewriting part of it. It won't be anything major, but it might become a tad more readable in the process.

So, without any further delay, this story finally starts moving forward. All kinds of things will start happening. I'll be throwing out twists left and right, some of which will be out of left field. Mainly because we only have two more chapters to go before it all wraps up.

* * *

><p><strong>Bio-Study-Operation-Observation 04 : Subject ACER-2149825497<strong>

Moving right along, I suppose the next order of business would be to tackle the next set of dreams. These dreams vary in length and as such vary in quality. I am unsure if there is any significance to that fact, but in the end I suppose that dreams can take a variety of forms and perhaps some of these dreams did not require the dreamer to hear the voices of those involved to understand what they were thinking.

But then to that extent – perhaps he knew the people involved well enough to be able to understand the plethora of information that was given in these stories.

The one that I am primarily questioning here is in fact the first one we shall discuss – the _Fortune Chapter._

In this tale we see Rika Furude being heavily guarded by the authorities in one of the most highly sought after scenarios amongst the sea of fragments – a scenario where the regrets and fears of every member of the village managed to manifest but without consequence. In the end all it meant was that an easy way out had been provided for them all.

At least, that was what it seemed like.

I will guarantee it with my divine approval. Rika's desire for a future where she along with the rest of her friends did not result in a miracle. Instead, it was the exact opposite.

Rika had been receiving all of her information from an exterior feed towards the end of the tale – that is, through Satoko. Indeed – it had all been a carefully woven lie. But it was a lie that could collapse ever so easily. And in the end with Keichi's call Rika took matters into her own hand and the rest is history. It is fairly easy to tell who exactly in this tale had the Syndrome and who did not. But interestingly enough, you can't tell exactly.

But the interesting detail here was that amongst the people involved, there was more than one person who ended up killing others. In this scenario, unlike the past scenarios, two people amongst this group of friends went out of their way to kill each other – this of course does not count the scenario involving poor Rena who acted out of impulse. What does this mean? I couldn't tell you. I really couldn't.

* * *

><p>The next tale we shall move on to is the <em>Yokai's Daybreak Chapter.<em>

Where shall I begin with this one?

Of course, any real scenario that I will produce for you all will assume that demons and ghosts and in this case yokai do not exist. Therefore, this chapter is as much of a red herring as the Suspicious Fragrance Chapter, except this scenario is much more open to interpretation given how it doesn't even take place in Hinamizawa.

The only solid details one can pull from this chapter involve the same instance that I brought up just a brief while ago. Multiple people willingly kill each other – but in this case it is not because of a necessity to save oneself, but in this case to achieve one's end goals. This dream demonstrates how any and all of the children the grand scheme of things centers around were willing to accept the prospect of killing one another to achieve an end result, but in the process some of them were not as prepared to kill some as they were to kill others.

Aside from this, the Black Tea Gentleman's commentary is also worth notice. In the end, the only true application of this story to the user defined truth of Hinamizawa in this fragment can be derived from the collective feelings of all those that were involved. Satoko would not kill Keichi. Shion was willing to kill more or less anyone. It is this aspect of the tale that can be applied to the user defined truth – but in the end, only certain inferences can be made. But if the possibilities do not contradict each other, then the possibility is still there. In the end, the mentalities of each character from this tale can be applied to the big picture and possibly hold some degree of sense – as the mentalities of each character involved doubtlessly goes hand in hand with the recurring theme, and therefore the main aspect of these tales that applies to the user defined Hinamizawa.

* * *

><p>The next and final tale we shall touch upon is the Looking Forward Chapter. The one chapter that I as the human being Saturn Anne cannot know about.<p>

This tale contains more elements of the user defined truth than I would care to mention. In fact, as this the Unreliable Narrator's final tale before the one in which she ultimately reveals herself, I would go as far as to say that this tale contains more truth in it than any of the previous combined.

The first order of business is to address the conclusion. Having Keichi take on the role of Willard H. Wright, a fictional character that does not exist in this fragment where the true Rokkenjima Massacre and the stories that followed it have yet to occur, goes hand in hand with the blatant references to said fictional character that are made throughout the chapter.

Earth to Earth and Illusion to Illusion. The former essentially translating to the reality of the situation and the latter translating to the falsified details of the situation. In the source material, in other words a possibility that has yet to occur, both are used to distinguish between an honest to goodness killing or a staged or otherwise faked killing.

In this scenario, earth to earth and illusion to illusion describe possibilities. In the story, Keichi makes use of both types of details to create possibilities that are not observed by an exterior group. With that taken into account, the reality of the situation was altered to his desires. In reality, it was not Keichi himself that performed this action – it was the Unreliable Narrator, who is the only one capable of altering events to such a degree.

There are two instances of this being used that you will see throughout the duration of this tale. Are they truly relevant? Perhaps or perhaps not. But in the end it makes for a good show, doesn't it?

The first of these is a more simplified version – the variant utilized by lesser beings such as myself who aren't quite up to snuff with the Unreliable Narrator.

In this case, there are two causes with the same ultimate effect. One is rational and one is irrational. One makes use of magic or sorcery and the other makes use of reality and chance. The causes themselves cannot be altered, but the effects can.

An example of this goes like this:

A demon killed a man.

A man was hit by a car.

Both are causes of a death – one irrational and one rational.

If the man simply doesn't die, then a demon could not have killed him because he isn't dead and therefore the demon does not exist. If the cause, the demon, cannot lead to the effect, the death, then the demon is powerless and has no reason to exist. The cause of death can't simply be changed – the irrational cause covers a wide range of causes. Therefore, the rational effect, the effect that can be altered by the lowest level of being, must be the changing factor.

The second is the one described above, where both effects are taken into account. The causes are ignored entirely for the simple creation of an event that would otherwise not be possible. In the event that death was unavoidable, the unobservable nature of the scenario allowed for Keichi to change the outcome of the battle – but not entirely. In the event that the death or the lack of death can be observed by an external audience or one that can become part of an external audience, the newly created irrational results cannot occur. It is through this method that the Unreliable Narrator was able to weave together so many different Hinamizawas in the first place.

This is the nature of these types of deception and the two faced nature of truth in this tale. Were you expected to come to this conclusion yourself? Absolutely not. But in the end it all adds on to the nature of what follows this synopsis.

By giving Keichi this role, in a more practical and more readily analyzable way, we are given a glimpse into how the art of deception can be utilized to alter one's perception of what has occurred. Doubtlessly, in the true Hinamizawa, this art is used proficiently as well – by deceiving the collective force driving a fragment to a certain possibility, a new possibility can be observed altogether.

But in this tale, we are shown how the art of deception alone is not enough. We are shown how it is all useless. Deception alone is not enough – only with a miracle would it be possible.

That is the nature of this tale. But as for how it pertains to the user defined truth –

Let us examine the plotline for this dream. In this dream the three sole survivors of the disaster try to combat fate to the best of their ability. Miyo Takano's identity as the culprit behind the massacre is revealed to the End Dreamer directly – but more importantly Miyo Takano is brought into the multiple killer scenario this time around.

In this tale, we have the survivors killing out of self defense – but on Miyo Takano's side, we have someone killing because they no longer know how to do anything else. We have a person who can't even remember why she began her path to ruin in the first place and killing out of complete necessity.

In these three tales we are presented with three different methods of people killing other people and vice versa. Which applies to the user defined truth and the ultimate future of this fragment? With time and with enough conjecture that will become clear in due time.


	24. VI: Bloody Festival Chapter

**Bloody Festival Chapter**

_Moving right along, I assume you're getting a bit impatient. If you've held any interest up to this point, then certainly, you want to know what the user defined truth really is. Do not fear and somewhat more importantly do not grow any more impatient. For the end is coming- the end is so close that I as a bystander can almost see it myself. But before that ending can be reached, you must be made to understand what the user defined truth means for those who are involved. You already know so much. But will everything you know come together in a fashion that you are expecting?_

_I can play mind games with you all day, but as I still wander ever closer to death's door I refuse to. Understand that this will be the beginning of the end. Understand that and you won't have anything else to fear._

_I will now take you back to the scene of the crime, as it is - to two who have survived on their own despite the improbable odds. Whether or not a miracle will occur that allows them to slip out by the skin of their teeth entirely, on the other hand, it still up for debate. But then again, you'll know in due time. And all you have to do is read. _

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

_The Pivotal Actors are as follows (bolded character gets the perspective):  
><em>**Yoko Narukami** (Age 15; Hair: short, silver; Eyes: Red)  
><strong>Oishi Kuraudo<br>**Saya (Age Undefined; Hair: Long, Black)  
>Satoshi Houjou<p>

* * *

><p>How much time has passed since I've been here? Days? Weeks? Certainly not months or years, but quite a long amount of time has passed since I ended up here. You likely don't remember all that much of me; after all I'm pretty unmemorable. But it's nice to see you again, especially after everything that's happened.<p>

My visit to the village to protect my friends- who could've known it would've turned out the way it did? Ah, that's an easy one. I should've known. But instead one of my best friends is dead and the other two are missing entirely. This sort of scenario wasn't at all what I was expecting, but I have to deal with what I get.

It was terrible at first. Nearly surviving an attack from Shion Sonozaki herself, followed by about a week and a half of wandering through the forest- I didn't think I would make it. I was prepared to die- I was probably going to end things myself with that handgun I always had on me.

I'd screwed up big time. There was little chance any of them would turn up alive after everything was said and done. There was no way I could return to normal civilization after all of this. I'd likely be scarred mentally for the rest of my life even in the event that I made it out alive, which in itself was far less likely than I would've wanted to admit. Even if I did return home, I'd just be returning to a life empty of any and all aspects that it once had. There would be no sense to my existence past that point.

As it was in this forest, I believed that my life had simply reached the point where it could expire whenever it wished to but simply stuck around because I'm just too afraid to end it. I was beginning to lose the will to live and relatively quickly.

But then I met Saya. At first I nearly thought she was just someone else ready to kill me- apparently she thought the same thing. But we were both just alone. That was why coming together was the single best thing that could've happened to us in our respective situations.

She didn't know who she was. All she knew was her name.

As for myself, I didn't want to be 'me' anymore. I almost found myself wishing that I could've lost my memories in a similar fashion, but looking back on it thinking like that certainly wasn't the right thing to do.

Saya was easily as old as I was. In fact, she could've been much older and I never would've been able to tell the difference. Her body seemed old enough to the point where she could be nineteen, but she was short enough that her height made her seem several years younger. But despite anything like that she was as fragile and broken as a small child.

In the beginning I had to comfort her, but eventually she ended up being the one who had to comfort me. Somewhere along the line I sort of stopped treating her as a stranger and she pretty much became a part of me. No, not like _that_. Let's not read between the lines too much here.

In the weeks that we remained on that point near the mountain, we simply had to recover from everything that happened. It was a long and arduous process, but eventually we decided that as long as we could rely on each other there was still hope that both of us would come out alive in the end.

Saya is far too important to me now. In fact, if only one of us could survive at this point, I would want it to be her. I had a chance. I put myself in this situation. I let my fear of failure lead me right into the worst scenario possible. Saya never had a choice. She was just roped into everything right from the start.

Anyhow, moving on to some of the more pressing details of what happened between the last time we were together and now.

First off, you're probably curious as to how I got my gun back. That would be the first thing I'd want to know if I were in your place.

It was a rather strange event. A few days into my camping out in this general area I was…visited at some point. The person who had visited me? Harumi. But the strange thing was that she had a rather pensive look about her. She was so uncertain looking I almost thought she was someone else entirely. Her normally resolute expression was nowhere to be found.

She said something very strange as she dropped my handgun to the ground.

"I can't let you die just yet. Keep on living."

She turned to leave before whispering something that I was just barely able to hear.

"It can't be anyone else. You have to stay alive. You have to be the one, Yoko. You have to be the one."

She vanished into the woods before I could so much as utter a word. There was little sense to that last statement of hers. If she were trying to kill me, why not do it right then and there, instead of giving me a way to defend myself?

So there, I got my gun back. But more importantly I had my coward's way out.

So why am I still alive?

It's rather simple. Not all that long before I was planning on pulling the trigger, I had a bit of self reflection, mainly on the things that Harumi had said to me.

She said that I was the only one – but she didn't really explain what that meant. Before she had clearly wanted to kill me, but given how strange her actions were now I doubt that's the case at this point. Instead, I came to the conclusion that she was hiding something – hiding something very important from me.

She said I was the only one – the only one that could do or could be what?

Harumi wanted me alive. I still wasn't sure what for.

But for some strange reason I believed that if I tried to find her again I would have my answers. I still wanted to know why things had to happen the way they did. I still needed to bring about some sort of resolution.

My nature to want to perfect things was still as apparent as it ever was. I'd been put in a terrible situation because of it, but in the end I established that the only reason why I wanted to do the things I did was because I wanted to protect my friends. I didn't care for perfection in the end, and I had come to that conclusion on my own.

So in that case I didn't just want to tie up loose ends. I wanted to resolve this terrible chapter in all of our lives. And if I'm incredibly lucky, perhaps I can still save Harumi. I doubted it severely, but I still had some hope.

But I couldn't help but feel that my hope would amount to nothing in the end.

I'd already been hit with the news that senpai had died. I already suspected that result. But despite that I completely lost all sense of composure. I don't even remember how long I had cried for – she was a close friend of mine, but in the end Harumi was always still closer. But I didn't necessarily recall senpai ever having that many friends. I suppose I could've been more important to her than anyone else in our assortment. Maybe that was why she was so willing to die in my place.

But of course even through all of that – and even now – Saya was there. She was there the entire time. She had been in my place perhaps only a day before. But now we had changed places so thoroughly, even though the gravity of her situation far outweighed mine.

That was when I decided that I could never lose Saya – no matter how difficult things became and no matter how many times I would have to nearly die myself, I would never lose her. I simply couldn't.

Anyhow, now that we've gotten all caught up I suppose we can move on ahead.

Even now, we are relatively close by. Saya sleeps on the other side of the warped tree that makes for a decent covering. I'm only awake because I don't usually sleep all that much anymore.

I assumed it was around five in the morning, judging from the very small presence of the sun in the sky.

Saya stirred next to me.

"Did you wake up already? You don't have to pretend to sleep." I remembered that for quite some time Saya just pretended to get sleep so I wouldn't be so concerned about her.

"I wasn't awake for very long."

"You're not lying, are you?"

"I'm not. Don't worry. It's not a big deal." Saya's speech was somewhat hazy, so it seemed that she had been asleep for quite some time. I decide to let it slide, even though my concern for her wellbeing seemed to overturn everything these days.

We spent the bulk of the morning doing what we usually do. Saya had made use of that dagger of hers to find us some food, although neither one of us was proficient at making fires. We managed, however. It wasn't all that hard to live off of nature in this area.

The only problem was the ticking time bomb that was Saya's damaged leg. She was almost inhumanly resistant to the pain it would doubtlessly cause, but there was no telling how long that would last for. I had no idea how she'd even managed to make it this far off of such a badly damaged leg, but in the end I suppose the reason wasn't as important as I had made it out to be.

As the day went by we took to bird watching. There was a surprisingly large number of wildlife in the area despite how desolate everything seemed to be – but I suppose that if the cicadas stuck around everything else would've stayed as well.

The day went along much like any other day.

That is, until someone apparently uncovered our tracks.

It was an hour or so later that Saya apparently heard footsteps and tried to pull me away towards cover, but in that instant we were jumped by at least three men.

Before I had to turn and run I was granted a single sidelong glance at them.

They all had bloodshot eyes and unkempt hair. Their wild screaming was animalistic in nature. These men seemed to be capable of killing just for the sake of killing – if for any reason other than the fact that they had nothing to drive them to live aside from this carnal instinct. They all had the presence of wolves – their cries weren't even all that different.

Even though Saya had been the one who grabbed my hand, I was the one who led her off into the woods.

We ran. That was all we could do. We just ran, further and further into the woods. Eventually, I hear one of the men suddenly break out into a burst of speed. I let go of Saya's hand for a brief moment, reach for my handgun, and with some amount of sheer dumb luck I manage to land a shot right between his eyes. His two companions somehow managed to trip over the dead body and landed face first in the dirt. That would only slow them down for a short time, however.

As we continued to run, Saya seemed to start to lag behind. It would seem that the damage done to her leg was finally taking some effect.

"Yoko, we can't keep going like this…" She murmured. I almost didn't hear her.

"Don't worry, it'll be fine. We'll get out of this." I tried to convince her, although I was more intent on convincing myself.

"Look, there's one easy way we can do this."

I don't respond.

"Just let me go. You can get away. That way, at least one of us makes it out of this."

"I'm not doing that."

"We won't survive at this rate. Please, just do it."

"Listen to me – I'm going to promise you something right now."

Saya falls silent.

"Neither one of us is going to die. I promise – we'll both make it out of this alive. You'll get the answers to your questions and I'll get to save my friends. Understand?"

Saya hesitates for a moment, but then nods. Her grip on my hand tightens and I began to gain speed.

I was running even faster now. I was running as fast as I could, or at least as fast as I believed my body could go. I had no idea where I was headed but in the end all I wanted to do was protect Saya. I kept running, clearly hearing the footsteps of my crazed chasers that were increasing in volume with each passing second. In all honesty I was still reeling over from the fact that they had found us out there, although I assumed that Harumi had just told them. That still went against what she had told me before but then again –

Crap, I can't go off like that right now, I almost hit that tree!

It would seem that the pursuers have taken to the trees – a combat tactic that I was familiar with. The Devil Student had done the exact same thing.

But then it suddenly hit me.

Perhaps I wasn't attacked by Shion Sonozaki at all. Perhaps it was just these men.

But before I can interpret the irony of it all a large rock suddenly slams into my back. I tumble forward slightly before regaining my footing and changing the direction of my run slightly.

Saya breathes somewhat more heavily behind me. I keep forgetting that she's still injured, even though I spend every ten seconds or so worrying about her. Her injury had about five days to heal, but it was still really bad. It had apparently gotten much worse over the period of time where someone in my school uniform – likely Harumi – had attacked her.

"Come on, not much further." I lie plainly. I had no idea where we were going.

"You have no idea where we're going." She practically gasped. So much for that idea.

"Look, we just have to keep running. We'll make it if we just keep on going."

"I know that better than you do. How do you think I got this far in the first place?" She had a point.

I don't speak past that point. I just continue to run with Saya in tow, heading further and further from our chasers and hopefully further away from wherever they had come from.

All I knew was that if I happened to end up somewhere in the village we would both be screwed at that point.

I hear a very strange sound – it sounded like some sort of a snapping branch or something, although much louder. I turn around to find that the source of the sound was Saya tripping over a very thin wire that springs an overhead trap. A large log swings down toward me from the top of the tree the wire had been attached to and slams directly into my stomach. I'm sent back flying quite a distance before colliding with another tree. Saya had long since let go of my hand and was lying face down in the soil.

Our pursuers appear relatively shortly after and one of them immediately moves to restrain Saya, who manages to crawl a good ways away before finally being pinned to the ground. The other attacker stalks over towards me and jabs me rather hard in the stomach as I try to stand up. I had instinctively tried to make my way over to Saya. If she'd been damaged any further I would've lost it immediately. I grit my teeth as the man in front of me forced me against the tree.

There were a few possibilities here. We'd either be killed outright or be beaten up rather badly and _then _killed outright. The bottom line was that this was pretty much the _end _of said line.

Then we get miraculously saved.

Out of the bushes comes what appears to be a kunai – the kind of dagger-like weapon you would see a ninja make use of. The sharp weapon found its home in the side of the attacker who was hovering over Saya, while another landed right between the eyes of the attacker nearest to me.

Behind one of the trees emerges a rather young looking man with blonde hair wielding what I would guess to be a katana based on the style of weaponry I'd seen flying around previously. He took a single step towards the man who had been standing over Saya but was now writing in pain on the ground next to her and rammed the katana rather roughly into the man's skull. It was a rather bloody sight, but the man seemed somewhat used to it. The man nearest to me, who I had believed to be dead up until this point, tried to crawl away from the area and out of harm's way, but the man forced the katana out of the other man's skull and simply _threw _the entire blade in the man's direction. It was rather surreal when it made its mark almost perfectly centered into the man's back and straight through his chest.

"Eh, not my best throw." He speaks rather nonchalantly for someone who just murdered two people outright.

But just as he is about to let his guard down two more men appear from the woods and try to rush him at the same time. But the one is punched squarely in the stomach and kneels over in pain while the other takes a kunai to the skull that the man had drawn from seemingly out of nowhere. He then pulls the kunai out of the one man's head and thrusts it into the other's. Both of them fall over dead, but that apparently wasn't the end of them.

The man sighs. "Goddamn, just how many guys did you have chasing you?"

"…I only counted two." I speak somewhat nervously, having believed that the question was directed towards me.

"…Nagi, work your magic." He calls out to someone who apparently was in hiding somewhere

As two men appear from what I believed to be the direction opposite that which we had been running in, a somewhat old man appears from behind one of the trees in my line of sight and throws what I believed to have been two shuriken and three kunai, all of which had been laced between his fingers. It was the most impractical fighting style I had ever seen but it was apparently effective enough. All five of the weapons found homes in various spots on the two men. They both ended up collapsing and likely dying on the spot.

"Are there any more of them?" The old man asks his blonde haired companion.

"Three more from the right, two more from the left. I take it these aren't the guys who were chasing these two."

"So then they spotted us on our way in?"

"They knew we were coming. It's not like we had the element of surprise to begin with." The man responds while pulling his sword out of one of the corpses.

"That is indeed true…Very well, Houjou-sama, I shall assist you to the best of my ability."

"…Houjou?" I hear Saya speak that name, although her voice was practically a whisper now.

I knew the man heard her, given how I heard her, but he didn't seem to react.

"Here they come."

Suddenly multiple people entered the clearing form multiple directions. I counted five in all – but in a few moments, one of which I missed because I had blinked, there were only one left standing. The old man apparently named Nagi had somehow acquired what appeared to be a long spear – perhaps a naginata, as fitting as that seemed – and outright impaled one of the men straight through the chest using it. The curve of the blade wasn't meant for such a thing, but it ensured that the target was essentially dead as it had hooked around whatever vital organ it might have missed. He managed to pull the spear out with little issue and more properly slashed another man's face open.

Meanwhile, the young man named Houjou continued his own impaling spree, never slashing with the blade but in all instances plunging it into either someone's head or their chest without fail each time. Another man fell that way, as did another.

The one that survived, with a look of pure terror on his face, tries to retreat. But the reach of Nagi's naginata is far too great for him to properly escape its range. With a single slash the man's left leg is ripped open and he stumbles to the side before the bloody weapon finds another mark in the man's _other _leg. It was an incredibly brutal scene, and the bleeding man stabbed himself in the chest with a small knife to end things faster. I wouldn't have blamed him.

"That one was a bit merciless." Houjou remarks.

"Was it all that bad?"

"Yes. It was. I don't want to see that again. If you're going to kill someone, do it outright."

"…Ah, yes, of course. Forgive me, Houjou-sama." Although he had been chastised his gaze did not seem to express any sort of regret in the slightest. In fact, his gaze didn't reflect much of anything at all. I tried not to look directly into his eyes for very long. There was something off about them.

"Moving on, there's another three coming from the right."

"Which way is right again? Can't you just give me cardinal directions?"

"I don't have a compass. That way's right and that way's left. So there coming from that direction."

"Ah, I see. Thank you, Houjou-sama."

This sort of conversation was the most impractical thing I had ever witnessed in my entire life. But just as quickly as they had stopped the action the two began their battle again as the last three pursuers essentially ran to their deaths. The two of them dispatch them as quickly as they had the others and in the end there are corpses littering the clearing.

"Alright, it's safe to move now." Satoshi states as he pulls his sword out of his latest victim.

Saya almost instantly got up and ran over to me before she crashed on top of me. It seemed that her leg wasn't hurting as much as it had before.

But before I could say a word, she asked me if I was alright. I had to smile at that.

"Anyhow, now that we aren't being attacked anymore, I suppose it's time we sort things out. There's some explaining that needs to be done on both our parts." Houjou speaks.

"I'll start first. I'm Yoko Sakagami, a student at St. Lucia Boarding School."

He raises an eyebrow at that.

"I'm Saya." The girl next to me speaks softly.

"Ah, I see…But, uh, Yoko, right? You said you were from St. Lucia Boarding School, right?"

"Yes."

"Then would you know a…Ah, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Your friend apparently might be familiar with me. I'm, uh, Satoshi Houjou. Let's just go with that for the time being." Nagi nodded his head with approval at his response.

"Houjou…Satoshi…" Saya appeared to be deep in thought, but as she did not give a response the old man decided to introduce himself as well.

"I am simply called Nagi. You don't need to call me anything else."

"…Alright, so I suppose I should explain why I'm here." Satoshi nods his head, allowing me to continue. "…One of my friends had a sister who died here recently. She believed that…Well, she claimed that she was still getting letters from her, and so I came here with her and a few of my other friends to investigate."

"I'll fill in the rest for you – she lied, right? And you got stuck out here as a result?"

I nodded my head.

"Edogawa?"

I nod my head slowly. Apparently he was familiar with Harumi, or at least her sister.

"Dammit…" He curses under his breath.

Nagi picks up where he left off. "I'm certain that you're aware by now that Hinamizawa has been…repopulated, if you will."

"Seems a bit self explanatory to me."

"We've come here to wipe them out."

"Wait, you want to kill _all _of them?"

"Certainly. It's very possible, especially with Houjou-sama leading us."

"Wait, so there's more than the two of you?" Saya speaks for the first time during the exchange.

"Yes, there are about six more of us."

"Is that it?" I was a bit skeptical of what he was saying. He intended to wipe out what at this point I believed to be a small army with only _six _people at the ready?

"We are all about as skilled in combat as the two of us are, although I don't believe that anyone is quite on Houjou-sama's level."

My gaze shifts to Satoshi once again. His face was still rather grim.

"So you knew Harumi Edogawa?" I ask him, once again getting his attention.

"I knew her sister. Unfortunately for the both of us."

"So you were here at the time she died?"

"Well, yeah, I mean, I killed her after she went bat shit insane. So yeah."

I was a tad bit shocked to hear that. This man had apparently been in the village when the killings had happened – and he was still here.

That must have meant –

"Did you kill the rest of them too?"

"…Well, mostly."

"Why?" I ask a question that I'm sure I'm not going to get an answer to. I can feel the tension rising anyhow, so I figured that I didn't have anything to lose by just asking him outright.

"It's a really long story. I mean a _really_ long story. I was tricked into doing it. Let's just leave it at that."

"Houjou-sama was under the impression that he had to revive the Oyashiro-sama curse." Nagi elaborated.

"I see…" My voice trails off at that. I was still a tad suspicious, but it seemed we were on the same side. I didn't address it further.

I'm not sure what to think of that idea. Someone was tricked into killing a group of people? Was that really –

I suddenly remember something.

"Oh, what was it you were asking me before? If I knew someone?"

"Oh, right… You wouldn't happen to know a Yomi Sumidera, would you?"

"…Yes, I do. She's a good friend of mine. We brought her here with us."

His eyes, which up until now were somewhat vacant and uninterested suddenly became very alert.

"Wait, you mean she's _here_? As in somewhere around…_here_?"

"Yes. I was separated from her some time ago."

"For fuck's sake…" He sighed again. "Nagi, we need to gather everyone. Things just got a whole lot more complicated."

"…Very well, I'll call for the rest of them."

"Is something wrong?" I wasn't entirely sure why Satoshi had acted to adversely to my answer.

He hesitated before speaking. "…Let's just say that bringing your friend here was one of the worst mistakes you could've possibly made."

With that he stalked off and Saya and I were essentially forced to follow. I didn't question him any further.

I was afraid of what he was going to answer me with.

* * *

><p>We assembled with a few other people in another clearing a good ways away, this time much closer to the perimeter of the village. Saya and I more or less sit out the battle planning, given how we're just going to be following the leader for the bulk of our time traveling across a live battlefield. Saya clearly wants to head back into the village, however, but she isn't telling me exactly why just yet. She'll come around in time, though. I of course need to find Harumi, so I'm still involved, at least for the time being.<p>

The remainder of this insurrection group hardly looks fit to carry out the mass slaughter of this very large group of people, but then again I just watch two of these people slaughter a whole group of them while being severely outnumbered, so I assumed that these others could produce something similar, at least to a certain degree.

"Is everyone assembled, Kimiyoshi?"

"Yes, Nagi. I count everyone."

"Good. Anyhow, Houjou-sama has something he needs to share with you all. This pertains to our main plan of attack from this point onward."

"But Nagi, why can't we simply forgo–" One of the men tried to speak in protest.

"Silence." Nagi's voice was louder and far more firm than it had been only moments earlier. "I am no longer your commander. Houjou-sama is."

"Heh, I knew these guys wouldn't like me." Satoshi mutters, but loud enough that I can hear him.

"Alright, listen up. I don't care what problems you have with me. You brought me out here. Here I am." The man who had protested did not make a sound afterward. The others around him seemed to glare at him with some intensity. Clearly the majority was in favor of taking orders from Satoshi.

"Moving on, we have a few orders of business to take care of. First off." He gestures towards me. "We've taken on some civilians. Do not allow any harm to come to them. In most instances they will be traveling with me, but in the event that we become separated, protect them at all cost. Furthermore, if you spot anyone wearing that uniform, do not touch them unless they attack first. In that case, subdue them. Do _not_ kill _anyone_ wearing that uniform. Understood?"

He was met with silenced. I silently thanked him for offering to protect us.

"Alright good…Now moving on…"

Satoshi then explained the form of invasion that the small group would perform.

It was rather simple – almost too simple in fact.

The eight of them would break off into small groups of two. Each group would attack anything human on sight, hopefully killing off a decent number of the opposition before they could figure out what was going on. Unfortunately, this element of surprise was likely gone at this point, given how such a large number of them had already been slain. At least the opposition didn't know we were so close to the village at this point.

Anyhow, from what I could understand after the enemy had been alerted to their presence, the three of the four groups would converge on each other, luring as many as they could into some of the leftover traps and then fighting the main group of men head on. Once the initial wave died down (a wave in this case being a relatively small number of people; this scale isn't war sized or anything), those three would then single off, while all heading towards the same goal – the Sonozaki Estate, which would more or less serve as their base of operations for the duration of the attack. Once they had the estate, they had access to whatever weaponry was still there.

This plan seemed so impractical – but then I heard that this group of eight might not be a group of eight for much longer. Apparently after a certain point – likely after the Sonozaki Estate was taken – a small group of sixteen trained killers would join our numbers. I didn't question where they were from or anything like that, but I assumed that they were hired hands from some organization. At that point it would be easy to take over the village.

The single group – the group that Saya and I are being roped into none the less – will sneak through the village, making use of whatever firearms we happen to find, although the chances of either side having more than a handful of firearms (excluding mine of course) is very slim. It makes for quite a large advantage. Anyhow, the single group will sneak through the village and attack the central focus point of the opposition – the clinic, where the hidden shelter had been built and where Satoshi-san had apparently been held for quite some time. There the leader of the opposition would in all likelihood be hiding out – that was likely where Harumi was, and likely where the answers Saya is looking for will be found.

"That's pretty much how things are going to work. So any further questions?"

Satoshi was met with silence.

"…Alright. We'll begin the attack momentarily. They won't have any idea what hit them."

Satoshi turned to me this time. "Are you two able to move pretty quickly?" He was asking this _now_? After he put together his big plan?

"Yeah, for the most part…My friend has a damaged leg though."

"I can still run. I got myself this far. I can go a bit further." Saya protested immediately.

"…Alright then, so there aren't any objections here either. So here's how we're working these groups out. I'll go with Nagi and bring the civilians with me. Kimiyoshi, you figure out which guys work the best together." It was almost comical. It was almost as if he was making groups for a group assignment in a classroom. The only difference here was that these groups would be going out and killing people.

"…Hey, old man, are you sure this is the best way to handle things?" He asks Nagi as if he were his advisor.

"I'm certain your plan will not fail. You are the one who devised it, after all."

Satoshi sighed. "I for one hope you're right."

In a matter of minutes, the rag-tag group of insurgents was prepared to go into battle. It seemed so impractical, given how this seemed so different from any movie I'd ever seen. But I suppose that this was small scale urban warfare at its most primitive.

Things began so suddenly that I completely missed Satoshi's command to charge. But eventually I found myself running, my hand firmly tucked under Saya's as we moved through the woods while staying very close to Nagi, whose large cloak seemed like a sort of protective barrier.

Just like that a small war began. And just like that I was running off into the smoldering Hinamizawa, allowing fate to throw whatever it felt like my way.

Satoshi moved incredibly quickly. As we weaved in and out of the buildings he managed to dispatch a number of men before they even knew he was there. There were flames of rituals still abound everywhere, but despite the superfluous lighting we blended into the darkness rather well. It was still not bright enough for the sun to give away our position, but if this took too long that might be an issue after all – but given how fast we were moving it was the least of my worries. We never stood still much at all – we just kept moving as fast as we could.

The village was in a state of total chaos. Apparently the other groups had already made their move and the rabid screams of the current residents of this place filled the air that was otherwise filled with the crackling sounds of fire and the smell of burnt flesh that I prayed was just burnt meat even though I knew deep down that such a reality wasn't all that likely. Many of the village's buildings had corroded to a serious degree, while others seemed to be freshly burnt – while others were covered in moss and vines of all sorts as if they hadn't been touched in years. Eventually it came to the point where the village started passing me by like a blur as our speed increased as we progressively drew closer and closer to the heart of the village. I couldn't even keep up with what Satoshi was doing, so I spent most of the mad dash making sure that Saya didn't suddenly go limp.

We continued to make a seemingly coordinated path through the tattered streets of Hinamizawa, leaving a trail of corpses in our wake. I couldn't even count how many Satoshi and Nagi had managed to kill – all I knew was that there was a new scream approximately ever two seconds. Of course I could barely tell the rabid battle cries of these deranged people from their death cries. If I had to guess, I would say about seventeen men were slaughtered.

All the while the wind continued to howl and the cicadas continued to cry. No matter how loud the sounds of death and chaos were, the cries of the cicadas were that much louder.

As I tried to figure out exactly where we were headed, something finally went awry. There was an explosion, and in the moment I had let my guard down Saya's hand slipped from my grasp. Apparently one of our attackers had tossed what I believe to be a grenade somewhere in our general direction. Nagi comes running to a halt and slipped off to the side while Saya stumbles off further away from me.

Before I could even register that Saya and I had separated. Satoshi quickly moves into action. Pulling me as hard as he can he manages to drag me out of the path of an incoming bullet. He pulls me behind a building and just out of the range of an armed man standing on the room of the building opposite ours. Apparently they did have firearms – rather rudimentary ones, but firearms none the less.

Another grenade comes flying in our direction. I see blood spray, followed by a series of gunshots. Apparently we'd been spotted by someone who was pretty well armed.

But more importantly I don't know where Saya is –

Suddenly I see him – I see the man shooting at us as he moves ever so slightly to the right to get a better shot at us from behind our cover. He has his long rifle aimed straight at me and is about to fire, but Satoshi moves first, quickly pulling me to the ground and out of the line of fire. I can see Nagi behind a tree a short ways away but still no sign of –

"For fuck's sake, how fucking far away from the damn clinic are we?" He screamed. Clearly he wasn't all that pleased with the concept of being actively shot at.

"Houjou-sama, I fear that they were better prepared for this than we thought."

"Who the fuck gave them guns and fucking explosives? Do _we _even have any?"

"I'm certain Kimiyoshi-san had a few to spare, but I fear for how effective our initial attack will turn out."

"Dammit, I knew this was a bad idea!"

"Do not fear, Houjou-sama. Your plan has not failed yet."

"…igh…" I try to speak my mind but my words get caught up in my heavy breathing.

"Huh? Are you trying to say something?"

I try to speak again, but find it easier to just pull the gun on my thigh out if its holster and hand it to him.

"Oh, alright. This works. What were you doing with this?" He didn't even thank me.

"…I don't even remember." I finally speak. I picked it up at some point before I found Harumi. My memory of even then is a bit hazy.

As Satoshi quickly tries to figure out how to shoot the gun my mind finally wanders back to –

"Where's Saya?" I shout.

That's right – someone had been shot down. Someone had been killed in the moment the man threw his second grenade.

"I'm fine." I hear a short but firm response which instantly kills all of my fears on the spot. I'm unable to tell where her voice had come from but the point was that she was alive.

I take a deep breath. It was fine for now.

Satoshi turns his attention back to the man shooting at us. He gets a feel for where the man is, quickly moves from behind the cover of the building wall and takes the shot – and luckily hits. He drops the gun instantly.

"_Fuck _why is it so damn hard to shoot one of these things? How the hell do _you_ shoot this?"

I realize that question was directed towards me. "I…haven't really shot anyone with it yet." I didn't count my incredibly lucky shot on that man from before as having used a gun before. All I really knew was to use both hands instead of one.

"Ah, alright, but anyway let's get moving again, I don't want any more of these pricks trying to bust a cap in my ass." Satoshi grabs my hand as I return the gun to the holster. We take off again, heading down the road and once again into the line of someone's fire. This time we just keep running, however.

"Nagi, make sure not a single bullet touches that girl!"

"Understood, Houjou-sama." Nagi's voice is firm but very calm.

Satoshi continues his mad dash with me in tow. We head straight for the building that the shooting is coming from – it would seem to be the roof of a small convenience store.

"Stay here. Do not move a muscle. They might see you if you do."

I almost nod my head before registering what he had just said.

In that moment he seems to jump. He grabs a section of the overhanging roof and manages to scale the building while making use of a tree. He vanishes over the top, but in a few seconds the bloody body of the man who had been shooting at us comes crashing down to the ground. Nagi and Saya quickly run over and Nagi grabs the rifle from the corpse's grasp and takes off. Satoshi joins me again and we continue running, this time through a more rural section of the village.

It all happens so quickly. I couldn't even begin to process what Satoshi had done before we were already a hundred feet away.

We end up weaving in and out of the trees with as much precision as we had just before. With Satoshi dragging me along I find myself unable to keep up. My legs start to drag for a moment, but in that instant he pulls me to the side as yet another assailant takes a shot at us.

"Stay here for a second, alright?" I nod my head and he takes off again. I don't even dare to look over the edge of the tree to see what is happening, but before I know it I hear a loud scream, followed by the caving in of someone's innards. Before I knew it Satoshi had grabbed my hand again and we were moving again.

"Houjou-sama, if our survey was accurate we aren't all that far from the clinic. We have to cut across the dam site if we want to save as much time as possible."

"Alright, so where am I going?"

"Continue forward. When the road starts again follow it. From there head in that direction until you reach –" Before Nagi can finish his sentence a bullet flies past his head – as do three others.

Satoshi instantly turns at a rather sharp angle and dives forward, dragging me down with him. As I hit the ground he already tries to pull me onward. This was getting pretty damn annoying, but once I spotted the four men who had just shot at us I suppress my desire to complain and I let him take me where he wants to.

"Fuck that idea. We'll have to just keep going straight."

"Very well then."

"Let's look at the bright side." Satoshi apparently was trying to talk to me. "Bad guys can't shoot for shit. We'll be fine."

Was that an attempt to calm me down? I smile ever so slightly just because of how absurd it was for him to say something like that.

We keep running through the woods, killing another deranged lunatic or two along the way. Eventually we reach more buildings, which we promptly use for cover as even Satoshi needs to catch his breath.

"Where to from here?"

"Follow the road. Once it branches take the right path. Follow that road and we'll end up as close to the clinic as we need to be."

As the two of them talk over their next plan of attack, I peer at the village from around the wall of the building. I can still see fires everywhere – most of which were ritual bonfires to begin with. I can hear bits and pieces of rabid war cries and I assume that our allied forces are moving into this area.

Saya moves over to me.

"Are you alright?" She asks me.

"I'm fine…A little shaken up, but fine."

"That's good…Just don't worry, okay? It's only going to be like this for a little while longer."

"You sound reassuring today."

"Well what else can I do?"

"Hm…That's a good point."

Saya sat down next to me.

"Once we get there, things are going to happen pretty quickly."

"Yeah, I know." I certainly knew that Harumi was going to be there. I could almost feel it – I was very close to getting my answers.

"No matter what happens, you'll be alive at the end. I promise."

I was unsure why Saya was telling me these things but I decided to just nod my head.

Eventually we had to start moving again. Satoshi once again began to lead me by the head as we moved out onto the open road.

"Alright so from here –"

Another bullet whizzes past his head and finds its mark in the tree nearby. If I hadn't ducked in time I might've been in its range.

"Holy shit, motherfucker _let me think_!" He took off again, pulling me along with him. Nagi once again pulled Saya close to him as we made our way to the final stretch before the clinic.

We proceeded down the road and into another area of town. This section was a bit more built upon – it seemed that this was more of a shopping area than a residential area, given the small number of what appeared to be window shops along this road. From behind the broken windows I could make out potential attackers, although we were moving too quickly for them to ever notice us.

Eventually we reach another stretch of forest, and before I know it we are crossing a bridge. It seemed fairly old and it looked as if it could break apart at any moment, but that didn't stop Satoshi from dashing across it at full speed. I was a bit concerned for Saya, but the bridge didn't break and everything seemed to work out nicely.

However, I had noticed that there weren't any attackers out here. It certainly seemed strange, given how this was their main base of operations we were closing in on.

But in that moment I heard a loud snapping noise.

Saya calls out to me. I don't exactly hear what she says, but she had certainly said something. As I turn my head to look at her I find only Nagi – Saya was likely buried under his cloak.

But in the instant I turned to look at him, Nagi suddenly went flying off to the side while Saya tripped and fell over, but before she could land face first in the dirt Nagi quickly grasped her arm and pulled her off to the side.

One second.

In that same second Satoshi unsheathed his katana and in a single motion pushed me off to the side and with a single turn blocked the incoming attack with his blade.

Two seconds.

Before me Satoshi was locking swords with a green haired woman wearing a pitch black robe of some sort. They were completely deadlocked – there was no sign of either side giving way.

Three seconds.

In three seconds Satoshi hadn't killed this person. Clearly this wasn't the average sort of lunatic that we had encountered on our way here.

"You're alive. Fuck." He swore, although it sounded more like a friendly greeting than anything else.

"And here I thought you'd be happy to see me." The woman spoke with a certain degree of malice in her voice. "I even dyed my hair green for you. And that's the reaction I get?"

The woman backs away for an instant and tries to attack him again, this time with a swing from a different direction. Satoshi blocks it all the same.

"Might I ask which Sonozaki twin I'm speaking to?"

It suddenly hit me. The Devil Student? Was she real after all? And was this woman really the subject of such horror stories? She certainly looked the part. But it still stood out that she was supposed to be dead.

Her eyes were hazy with uncertainty only but for an instant. "And why does it matter?"

"Because I need to decide if I want to sweep off your feet and take you someplace far away or shove this sword up your ass."

"Either way you should already know who I am."

"I know who you pretended to be. We found a body for your sister, after all."

She grins slightly. "I am Mion Sonozaki. I have always been Mion Sonozaki. And I'll always be Mion Sonozaki."

Satoshi sighs. "Then I guess I'll have to go for shoving the sword up your ass."

"Hah, try as hard as you want. This time around you're not laying a finger on me!"

The woman backed away again, but this time Satoshi went on the offensive. But just as the battle was about to unfold before me Nagi and Saya came rushing over to me.

"Come quickly. Leave this to Houjou-sama." Nagi quickly grabbed my arm and we were once again moving through the woods, leaving Satoshi behind to fight – likely to the death – with Mion Sonozaki.

* * *

><p>We continue onward, and eventually the clinic comes into view.<p>

But before we can even enter the clinic, I see her there – Harumi. She's simply standing there near the front doorway.

"Miss, I believe this is a fight you need to deal with on your own." Nagi was right on the money with that one. "I will stand back and protect your friend, but – "

"Back away from the two of them." Harumi suddenly orders. Apparently she had seen us – and she had addressed that statement to Nagi. Her voice was still lacking in all emotion, just as it had been the night she returned my gun.

Nagi stands his ground, but once Harumi pulls a handgun on him he backs away towards the trees nearby.

"She's…It's her, no doubt about it." Saya whispered. "She's that woman who tried to kill me. Yoko, she isn't human. Trust me. Don't hesitate to…"

"To kill her?"

"I'm sorry. I know she's your closest friend, but…"

"I understand. Don't apologize." I lightly touch Saya's back, which seemed to calm her down significantly.

"How cute. It looks like you have a little sister now, you monster."

I couldn't tell if she was talking to me or Saya.

"Funny, calling me a monster while you're barely even human." Saya spoke with a level of disparity in her voice that I hadn't heard before. Apparently that statement had been directed towards her.

More importantly, there was some level of understanding going on between these two that I couldn't even identify.

"You hear that? Are you going to let that little devil trash talk to your best friend like that, Yoko?"

"What's even going on here?" My state of confusion gets the better of me and I yell at both of them.

"Don't worry." Saya tries to reassure me. "Remember she isn't who she made you think she was. Someone like that can't possibly be on your side." I had no idea what she meant by that, but she seemed to have a point.

"Yoko, are you done playing for the wrong side yet?"

"The way I see things _you're _the one playing for the wrong side."

"Hinamizawa needs this, don't you see? A whole culture will revive. A whole _world_ so very different from our old one will start here. Can't you see the awe in that?"

"All I see here are a pack of drunk lunatics who won't accomplish anything. Why are you so dead set on reviving this place anyway?"

"Isn't that what _you're _trying to do as well?"

"_I _don't give a damn for what goes on here anymore. I can't fix things that have been broken for a whole decade. I can't get you to come back me either, it seems."

"Don't you hate it? Don't you hate not being able to do a goddamn thing? Don't you hate being so _useless_?"

In that moment I felt Saya draw closer to me.

"Don't give into her yet. Wait for the right moment, and then do what you need to do." Saya was far more resolute about killing Harumi than I was, but in the end I knew this would end poorly for at least one of us.

"Let's put it this way, what would happen if I shot that little bitch right now?" She continued her rambling.

"Harumi, don't even think about – "

"Answer the question. What would happen if I shot that little bitch right now?"

I tried to find the words to answer her with, but given how she was already preparing to fire I had to choose my words carefully.

But then suddenly –

"I'd probably shoot back."

At that moment I realized what Saya had been doing. She had grabbed a hold of the gun on my thigh and at the moment she spoke she quickly pulled it out, took a _very _precise shot, and fired.

Harumi fell over, but not before getting her own shot off.

I almost moved instinctively to protect Saya –

But the bullet seemed to disappear. As in it just sort of vanished. I had no idea why, nor did I care why, nor was I going to pursue the line of thought that would make me realize exactly what had just happened.

"Y-You, you fucking monster…!" Harumi screamed.

Before I could even process what was happening before my eyes, Saya shoved what seemed to be a knife into my hand.

"Go, go now. This is our only chance."

She pushed me forward and I stumbled towards Harumi. She had already prepared her next and presumably final shot, but in my daze and in my still apparent desire to protect Saya I stab downward with my knife a few seconds earlier.

The blade sank into her chest. She instantly stops her squirming, and drops the handgun.

She stares rather absent mindedly at me.

And then it all slowed down so I could catch up.

I stabbed my best friend.

She was so different from who I believed she was, but she was still my best friend.

And I still killed her.

Harumi then smiled. "Ah…That's much better."

"…Harumi, I'm…"

"Isn't this what you wanted? Now do it, finish the job. Don't leave me hanging like this."

I couldn't find the words to respond with. I had so much to ask her, but it would seem that I couldn't bring myself to utter a single word. But it seemed that she assumed this and so she continued to speak despite the pain she was in.

"It had to be you. You had to be the one…To kill me…That's the only way that the curse could lift."

"What…?"

"Those were the conditions. I had to be killed by someone I loved. That was you. Of course I had to come back here first for things to work. That's how I could free myself…" She begins to cough up large amounts of blood.

At this point I'm afraid to turn look at Saya, but at this point she remains silent. Perhaps she knew the real issue with Harumi the entire time. But more importantly I still can't take my eyes off of Harumi.

"I'm sorry…This is all my fault. I just hope…You'll make it through what you'll find inside…"

"Harumi, please don't make me…"

"I said some terrible things about your friend…Apologize to her for me…I don't even know why I said half the things I said, really…"

"Okay…" My voice begins to waver.

"Go on. Do it. This hurts a whole damn lot, you know."

"…"

"Hey, it'll all be okay. You get to go home after this. Isn't that great?"

"…"

"It'll be fine. Don't you have Ushiromiya waiting for you? You can go back to the way things were. It'll all be okay…So please, I can't…stand this paint anymore."

I hesitate. I continue to hesitate. Saya does not make a single move. She had been so dead set on killing her before but now she didn't so much as make a sound.

I'm lost. I'm lost at the most crucial moment.

"Save me, please…" Her face twists in agony.

I have to do it.

I have to be the one.

It's the only way.

And so, with what small resolve I had, I proceed with the mercy-kill.

I twist the blade, and wrench it out of her chest. A fountain of blood follows.

"Ah…" She sighs with relief. "…I don't think I'll be able to see you again…So, goodbye."

I can't respond. It seemed that Harumi had wanted to say a bit more, but she couldn't produce the words. I on the other hand can't make any sort of reaction whatsoever. I still am at a loss for what has happened. I can't even focus on the moment anymore. I could easily faint at any second.

I collapse to the side as Harumi's heart stops and her blood sprays everywhere.

Saya runs to my side and pulls me close to her.

Her eyes are different. They are resolute and depressing at the same time, but more importantly they are now a strange shade of purple. Her eyes seemed to radiate with that purple haze that I had never seen before. The haze seems to die out gradually, but it had clearly been there a moment earlier.

But I don't even have the energy to question it. I was just hit with enough trauma that I might as well have been hit by a truck. You wouldn't be able to tell the difference. I was even covered in enough blood.

"…We can't rest just yet. Can you stand?"

Was she really asking me to keep on moving?

I don't make any sort of a response.

I knew we had to keep on going. I had to help Saya finish her part in all of this. But I just couldn't bring myself to move quite just yet.

"Okay. I understand…I'll go on ahead alone then. You can stay here. You'll be safe, so don't worry."

She stands. I almost reach out to keep her from going, but I know that no matter how much she might have wanted to she couldn't. She walked past Harumi's bleeding corpse and towards the front door to the clinic.

Nagi eventually works his way over once I am capable of responding to whatever it was he was going to say to me.

"…This is where my roll ends, unfortunately. I cannot help your friend past this point."

"Why not?"

"I'm certain you aren't fully aware of it yet, but it has gotten to the point where if I intervene I will set off a chain of events that will anger another set of powers that happens to be at work in this begotten place."

I didn't understand a single word of it.

"Put more simply, if I help your friend, I'm afraid I'd be overstepping my boundaries."

"Your boundaries? Your boundaries as _what_?"

"As a mortal."

Once again I didn't understand a single word of what he had said.

"I will protect you and this place. Until Houjou-sama returns, I shall not waver from this place."

My eyes shift to the clinic. Saya certainly needed help. There was no way she could survive in a place like that alone. I suddenly remember what I told her before. That no matter what we would both survive. As I let the moment set in, I began to remember all of these things.

I still had a promise to keep. I still had someone to protect.

And so I put forth what little energy I had left and stood. I walked off towards the clinic entrance.

"If you're not going to save her, then I will."

"Do as you wish." Nagi dismissed my statement with a wave of his hand. "I will continue to protect this place. You will not be followed."

With that I turned and opened the large iron door that led into our opposition's home base. I was certain I'd find terrible things inside.

But I had to protect Saya.

I'd lost whatever trace of my old life I had clung to.

Senpai was dead.

Yomi was missing. I doubted I would ever see her again.

Harumi was dead.

The only person I could protect while I was still here was Saya. So I would try to protect what small semblance of my life I had left.

If I died in the process, Ange would certainly be unable to move onward.

I had to go back. I had to see her again as well.

I still had unfinished business to deal with everywhere I had been.

But first and foremost.

I had to save Saya. I couldn't just leave her like that. She was far too important to me.

And so I proceeded through the doorway, into what I knew would be certain doom.

* * *

><p>I'm not supposed to be Oishi Kuraudo, so I'm not going to be Oishi Kuraudo. I'm supposed to be some hardboiled detective with an honor system, so I'm not going to call myself Oishi Kuraudo. I'm going to call <em>him <em>Oishi Kuraudo. And by _him_ I mean _me_. Except _he's _not _me_, because _I'm_ not legally _him._ So I guess you could say that _he's_ illegally _me._ Say it over and over a few times until it sticks. You'll get it eventually.

Slamming the door shut behind him, Oishi let out a loud grunt before collapsing into the nearby armchair. In any normal situation, he'd be mulling over his effortless victory against his subject, but while this instance did indeed turn out in a victory for him, it came with information he didn't want to know, yet kept pushing the mentally unstable Houjou boy to the limit in order to confirm.

A Sonozaki sibling who introduced themselves as Mion Sonozaki had been the one to resurface. And that could only mean one thing – that no matter what happened, no matter who that Sonozaki sibling really was or what ended up happening in that village, he was guaranteed to die.

It was her promise – the promise that she made to him when he stood by and watched her die. She had told him that it wouldn't be over after she died – she would follow him, from the depths of hell if need be, and she would do so until the day she could have her revenge.

Oishi Kuraudo just sat there in all sorts of pain and agony. He knew his days were numbered. He knew that Mion Sonozaki would have her revenge. It would give him nightmares for weeks. In the end her memory would start to plague him like a disease until perhaps he contracted a Hinamizawa Syndrome of his own design.

That was Oishi Kuraudo's problem in a nutshell.

He tried to occupy himself with something, but sadly he didn't find much that could take his mind off of his impending doom. It was all so surreal, after all. A dead woman – a woman he knew had long since passed away was potentially capable of keeping the promise that she made in death.

He shook his head. He wasn't thinking quite straight just yet. He had to recall the facts.

Mion Sonozaki was dead.

A Sonozaki sibling was alive.

That sibling is without a doubt Shion Sonozaki.

How that was even possible in the first place is still incredibly strange. Someone must have forged her autopsy.

But anyhow, why use that name? Why call herself Mion?

Could she carry on in her sister's place?

Was _she _going to come and kill him in her sister's place?

Trying to think things out logically apparently made things even more grim for him.

"For fuck's sake…What the hell am I doing?" He sipped the cold cup of coffee on the desk nearby as if pretending that it would have any real effect on his condition.

He had become afraid – very afraid. The infamous cold hearted bastard Oishi Kuraudo, public enemy number one, was afraid of a dead girl half his age.

He'd killed many men, women and children alike. He'd done horrifying things to people. He had just tortured a high school student to rip information out of him as if he was some sort of animal. He'd been the prime conspirator in crimes of all sorts.

But he was scared for his own life because of a little girl.

He shook his head again, reaching for the first thing on his desk that he could potentially occupy himself with. He ended up settling for his address book, with a list of numbers and house addresses for the various contacts he'd made throughout the years. Several of them were those of criminals, many of which who were still at large.

His eyes settled on the name Yoko Narukami and his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Shit, that's right. The girl."

He'd received a call from Yoko Narukami only recently. Apparently she had been looking into the stories of Shion Sonozaki and the alleged rumors that she was still out and about. Oishi already knew that a Sonozaki twin was on the move, and so he egged her on ever so slightly, giving her small bits of information that he knew would likely lead her into the village. It was that much easier given how she had called his old phone and had therefore been under the impression that he was still a detective.

How she hadn't been aware of the crimes he had committed was beyond him – but he was lucky that she didn't. Perhaps his involvement in the crime world was a bit lower in key than he thought. After all, his major crimes had all gone credited to other people with himself only serving as a conspirator. Perhaps Houjou's reception of him had only been as prominent as it had been because the boy knew every detail of the Hinamizawa investigation by heart.

Either way, that girl was now in the village. He had made sure of it, and by making sure of it he could confirm his suspicions about that village. And it would only be a matter of time before more deaths would pile up on the ashen remains of that place – only now Oishi was afraid that he would be included in that number himself.

He reached for his phone and quickly dialed a number he certainly had to know by heart. The line did not run and someone clearly picked up the phone on the receiving end but did not speak.

"Okonogi, you old bastard. Did we make landfall?"

_"Oh, it's you, sir detective Reiji Nakamura. Indeed, we did make landfall."_

"So did we leave the package where we needed to? Did the delivery boy make it back?"

"…_That should do it. This line is now secure, so no more of that code speak. Long story short, Akasaka dropped them all off at the perimeter of the village as planned. He confirmed that the invaders attacked them on sight. One of them was killed while the conditions of the remaining test subjects remain unknown."_

"What about the Narukami girl?"

"_The one that died was Naoto Sakagami. The invaders carted her off somewhere after they pretty much stabbed her to death. I think they cut off her head too, based on Akasaka's description."_

"That seems pretty damn accurate for someone who was off in the distance. Are you sure he stuck around at all?"

"_All that matters is that the one you asked about isn't dead yet, right? The validity of my associate's report isn't of either or our concerns."_

"Well what if he mixed the two up?"

"_He certainly isn't the type to mistake one woman for another."_

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did. He's just been chasing that Ushiromiya around for God knows how long." Oishi spoke vehemently as he recalled the smart-assed Akasaka who he had spoken with a while back.

"_Our plan to seize control of the Ushiromiya fortune and this operation are two different things. I'll have you stick to the one you're involved with."_

"Whatever. As long as she's not dead yet we can still salvage some results."

"_Tell me, Kuraudo. Why is that girl so important?"_

Oishi actually managed to grin. "Do you _really_ want to know?"

"_I'm certainly curious."_

"I'll just say that it isn't the present that's important. It's who wrapped the present."

"_...And who wrapped this present?" _It seemed he had figured out what Oishi was getting at.

"I'm sure you're familiar with Irie Kyosuke."

"…_Oh ho?"_

"Indeed. That is why she is so important. With her added to the equation, things will get a bit more interesting."

"_But what if this Kyosuke girl is already dead? Won't her presence there trip a few alarms?"_

"Well that's why I need as big a picture of what's going on in that hellhole as I can."

"_I assume you're going to head on over yourself now?"_

"I'll be out and about soon enough."

"_I see. But be careful. You're our primary benefactor for this operation, and I'm sure you know by now that if that girl sees your face we're finished. Tokyo will be watching this entire excursion with a very critical eye. You cannot afford to fail us."_

"And if you want to ensure that, you'll probably need to send that lapdog of yours back onto the field."

"_Making demands? The Yamainu might not be more than just a simple holding company these days, but I assure you we're still as skilled as a private military company as we ever were."_

"But of course. The concierge service in that cramped up building of yours beamed with intimidation. Don't take me for a fool. I'm usually the one who does the fooling, got it? I know you too damn well at this point. We've been business partners in this for well over a year and a half."

Okonogi's lack of response was a good enough reason to keep talking trash about his once proud private military organization.

"Let me put it this way – if you don't do _your_ part, then I can't do _my_ part. And if I can't do _my _part, I don't get _my _results, and then you don't get _your_ results. If you want to make sure Tokyo stays as useless as it's been you don't want to be turning my demands down."

"_Very well. We will be expecting sufficient results at the end of this little exercise of yours, Oishi. I'm sure you've familiarized yourself with the consequences, yes?"_

"I know the risks. The reward is too great to pass up."

Okonogi hung up the phone without another word. Oishi sighed again like the old man he was and dropped his own phone, not even bothering to place it back on the hook. It wasn't like he was going to be getting any late night calls.

It was true. To verify if Narukami was still alive he would have to go and check himself. He couldn't risk any hindrances to the results he sought out. He'd lose everything in the process – that was the price of attempting to overthrow the Tokyo Company. And it was the only price he could pay if he wanted his life back.

The operation was highly complicated. It involved stockholders and shares in a company he had stolen millions of yen from. Back when the initial Great Hinamizawa Disaster took place, the original so called cure for the syndrome was first and foremost spread to the pharmaceutical companies by the Tokyo Company. Essentially the vaccine itself was a small black pill that a potential victim would have to take once a day for a very long period of time. The vaccine itself became ridiculously invaluable over time as it came to the point where those who weren't even from Hinamizawa began to display signs of the syndrome.

The reality of it all was that it was all a purely psychological phenomenon. That was what the years of research yielded to the scientists involved. The real potential for a vaccine was quite honestly impossible – the vaccine that was released was essentially a drug that Irie Kyosuke, the late medical practitioner who was the illegitimate but still biological father of Yoko Narukami, devised himself. The pill itself was tested on Maebara Keiichi for three weeks before the disaster inevitably occurred. But in that time span, Kyosuke had forced the syndrome to take root in the boy's mind and the pill itself did all the work it needed to do. The pill was released to the masses, while all it did was essentially act as an extremely light sedative and convince the user that they would be cured of all traces or possible traces of the syndrome.

The Tokyo Company made millions of yen off of the pill. And so the disaster made them the richest pharmaceutical company in the nation even though they had no such right to even be called a pharmaceutical company. That was why Miyo Takano was allowed to exploit the village and its curse the way it did. All the public was ever told was that the village survivors were suffering from a violent disease that the rest of the public could easily be infected with. It was the perfect manipulation of the media. The incident eventually faded from memory entirely but the money was made and Tokyo came out on top.

At the present time there are three organizations that have a hand in this newly formed incident that we're aware of – my organization first and foremost. We're a group of former Tokyo scientists – myself being one of the few obvious exceptions – and some outright _weird _personnel. Our group is the only one without a formal name. Despite that, we've been researching the Syndrome and its effects on our test subjects and are better informed about the goings-on of that village than the average Joe. But for clarification's sake, I guess we're just called The People. That's what we've gone by for as long as I can care to remember.

The second is the Ushiromiya Company, otherwise known as 'A really damn rich woman whose subordinates happen to be the Yamainu executives post getting bitch slapped by the Prime Minister.' While Ushiromiya Eva owns the company, she's currently in the process of dying from old age, so my associate Okonogi currently runs the show. He can't get a hand on that family fortune, however, since the only two legal owners are the old lady and her niece, who happens to hide out in the same school Narukami attended.

The third is a rouge group of village survivors who aren't directly fighting the Tokyo Company, since they don't even know at this point that they were involved. They have the least power in this scenario, but in all likelihood they're going to serve as our frontline soldiers once we begin to make our move.

As for the plan that Oishi and Okonogi had formulated – it was all a spur of the moment thing. The Ushiromiya Company and The People had been dealing for quite a long time, and it turned out that since The People had hired me out to handle their prime Hinamizawa related subject – who I _still_ haven't gotten to interrogate, by the way – I was put into contact with Okonogi since the two companies were sort of cooperating since the Ushiromiya Company had paid off some government official to keep the guy hidden from the public. I'm not sure why Ushiromiya Eva took such a shine to hiding a human test subject from the public, but she agreed to the deal and so the research was able to proceed. Anyhow, Oishi revealed himself to Okonogi and after getting him to understand that he wasn't out for blood the two got along.

At this point the deaths in the village had already started up again. No organization had any control over them. It all just suddenly happened. The details that Houjou divulged were juicy enough but in the end Oishi didn't even care about that aspect of the whole deal. At this point, things were going to get messier. But it wasn't enough to cause a public scare. So they decided to do something about it. With a stroke of luck, Narukami had contacted him. And so he sent her off to do his own dirty work. In the end Narukami would be the witness – the witness who had to survive.

The bottom line was that if Hinamizawa's so called curse once again became a nationwide epidemic, as it had previously, the Tokyo Company would be exposed for its fraud, given how the vaccine would have been proven to be completely fake, and ultimately it would collapse under the weight of the press, of the government, and of all the pissed off customers.

Tokyo goes under, their stocks drop, and people start selling them left and right. Those millions of yen? Worthless, in the eyes of the system. The Tokyo Company would essentially end up in its own little depression – its value would be worthless, and the government would come knocking on their front door for the collection, given how the government with some certainty had their own amount of control in that organization and would have no trouble ripping it apart from the inside if they didn't submit to the exterior problem – you know, the one the media would actively be covering and the general public would be aware of. But in the eyes of the very same system that devalued it the money was still money – as long as no one knew that it was legally confiscated profit it was still profit.

And then with what money he could salvage from the Ushiromiya Company's table scraps Okonogi would buy out the fifty one percent. There would be no indication of said purchase, nor would anyone outside of the head of the company would be informed. And when the government came by wanting that money, it would all be gone already. Okonogi would have already sold off the company to its previous owner, and on top of that he would have given the man one million yen that he could do with however he pleased, giving the man some hope that the company could be salvaged. He would do all of that without even telling them that he'd cleaned house and paid off a politician or two that he had dirt on to keep the route the money took a secret and bam – Tokyo gets shut down. Its old head of staff gets arrested. Tokyo gets screwed, the government gets screwed, and a few guys get really damn rich.

That was the plan. Does the system of economics really work that way? Is this plan practical in the slightest under any other circumstances? Hell no. But with enough money anyone could be convinced that the contrary was indeed true. The world is built on lies and falsehood – this was really no different.

So that was the plan. The end of everything would be if the syndrome did not gain any steam – in other words, if the biological daughter of the man who created the vaccine in the first place died in the village and never lived to tell her tale of just how contrived her father was. Of course there were other things that needed to be accomplished in that village, and that was why Oishi needed to go there.

The one hole was essentially why Oishi sent that girl to the village if she was so important. The answer is pretty simple.

She needs to be there for one other reason.

As Oishi leans back to reflect on things more, the door to his small office of sorts swings open.

"What's the matter, mister Delicious? Having women trouble?"

"Oh, it's you."

In the doorway was Doctor Saturn Anne – a colleague of mine who not only hates my guts but knows about who I really am. He's about as strange as they come.

Oishi stands. "If I were you I'd look in a mirror before telling me that _I'm _the one having women trouble."

"What makes you thing that _I'd_ be having a problem like that? Especially with a face like this one?" The doctor smiles loosely.

"Well, didn't you have a woman until just recently?"

"You mean Aria? Don't make me laugh. That woman lacked the intelligence to be my partner. She was a great person either way but eh, not _that_ great." Oishi raised an eyebrow at his response. In the past Anne would be the first to get pissed off whenever someone badmouthed that woman, but here he was insulting her himself. Perhaps he had finally snapped completely.

"Can't you at least use her real name? She's dead now, so does it even really matter?"

"You see, mister Delicious, my problem is a bit more…Shall we say _life threatening_ than your problem." He then mumbled something before breaking out into a deranged sort of laugh.

"What was that now?"

"…Oh, you didn't hear me? It wasn't important. Don't worry yourself over the small details so much."

"So what are you here for?"

"I actually wanted to talk about something serious."

"And what might that be?"

"You need someone to cover for you. Considering how you're defying direct orders from the top brass and feel like heading straight into Hinamizawa while all the action is happening. Right?"

Oishi's eyes went wide. He knew. He knew the entire plan. Had he been listening? Impossible. That line was as secure as possible. There was no way this hack could possibly have –

"Don't. Sweat. The. Details. Just go with the flow."

"…Yeah, I do."

"Very well then. I will be the one to do it then."

"How are you going to pull that off?"

"I am going to kill you. Plain and simple."

He had said that so normally that Oishi almost thought it was some kind of a joke. But knowing this crazed man it definitely _wasn't_.

"W-What are you getting at?"

"Don't get all scared. I'll inform the higher ups that you died off with the others. You can disappear without much issue involved. There's only a handful of us left in this place anyhow."

"…Are you sure that sort of plan will work?"

"I know it will. I'm the one who runs the show around here anyhow."

"You really seem to think so, don't you?"

"I know so." He laughed again. Oishi hated that condescending laugh of his.

"Anyhow, you won't be able to hang around here for much longer anyway."

Oishi raised an eyebrow. "How so?"

Anne turned to leave and as he did he spoke his very short line. "Houjou escaped." With that, he closed the door behind him and left.

Oishi grinned once he was certain the doctor was out of earshot.

"I'd find it hard to believe otherwise. You know, since I left his door unlocked and all."

Satoshi Houjou – another piece to the puzzle. Another piece that had to make it to Hinamizawa. Another piece that was all part of the plan.

Damn, I'm awesome. I mean, damn _he's _awesome. Eh, what the hell does it matter?

* * *

><p>Thus concludes this chapter. No, it wasn't possible to figure out the whole illegitimate child thing with anything from prior chapters. That won't be the only detail. But none of it really has any serious effect on the story in general – it's just more detail that adds onto this new aspect of the plot that I'm brining into play here.<p>

One thing that I'm finding really hard to do is continue to write Satoshi in such an out of character way, now that I've pretty much dropped the OC veil altogether. I had an easier time writing him back when I was just calling him Rai all the time but I doubt it'll effect the writing in any serious way. Although I think I had him swear a bit _too _much this time around...

The next chapter will be released whenever it gets released. I'm not going to give a specific window this time around. But it won't be all that long. Anyhow, the next chapter will cover a much larger chunk of back-story than this chapter did, but considering how it's Saya's chapter that's going to be expected. Note that going into the next few chapters this multiple perspective thing is going to continue. That's the only way I can really keep this story structure going the way it's been going.

Anyhow, I'll see you all then.


	25. Bio Study Observation 07

Breathe…Breathe…

*Cough* Okay, I'm alive again.

At the time of writing this, I can say with some confidence that this story is pretty much done. I've nearly completed the writing of the last chapter and I have about 50% of the chapter after that sitting around somewhere. So this story _will _be finished. In case any of you were concerned about that.

This next chapter will get back into some of the dark and depressing content that was common in the earlier parts of the story. Beware of that. I mean it.

Anyhow, with this chapter things will be a bit messier. As in death count wise. And I'm talking about primary cast. Not redshirts like the majority of the people who died in the last chapter.

Also **very important read this before continuing:** I've done a slight rewrite of the last solution report. It's mainly towards the end of it. I would advise going back and reading a part of it before continuing.

So…Without any further delay, here, have this thing.

* * *

><p><strong>Bio-Study-Operation-Observation 07 : Subject ACER-2149825497<strong>

In closing, I would like to bring to the table the details of a certain final tale – the one that I as a human being certainly cannot ever be aware of. Yes, I am talking about the _Everyone Lives Chapter._

In this story, all sorts of twisted and demonic things begin to happen, even though no single character appears to have died at any point in the story – all that is mentioned from the perspective of Ryuugu Rena, in this, the only story she holds any prominence in, is that people have been injured, but not killed. Rena claims to be caring for her stepmother, but in fact is simply holding her hostage. Rena takes note of a strange lack of people, but the lack of people isn't strange at all.

Her syndrome as described by this story is her inability to cope with reality.

And this, coupled with the diary that is found by Satoshi in the classroom certainly pertains to the user defined truth on a serious level –

Indeed. It was all a ruse. It was all fake. It was all insanity – but it wasn't insanity at all. It was all simply a hoax. A hoax that an emotionally collapsing girl generated willingly to survive for as long as she could.

Then we come to Keichi's half of the story. Keichi is still as guilty as ever, although we see a far more helpless variant of him in this tale. In fact, this Keichi is almost completely different from any Keichi you've seen prior to now. And yet this is the most prominent of the dreams.

Why is this? Because this is not Keichi.

This is Keiichi we are being introduced to here. We are being introduced to a Keiichi who lives out of fear and has yet to sin. And this Keiichi is fundamentally different from Keichi in that singular sense. That is why the Unreliable Narrator showed him this tale. For this tale, while woven in such a way that the revealed truth clashes with it significantly, the establishment of Keiichi under the guise of Keichi was essentially only to the End Dreamer. Because he needed that tale to establish the reality of everything.

But really, what is all of this single 'I' nonsense really about? I'm certain you'll find out soon enough.

The segment with Mion in itself is simply more hopelessness to add to the situation. There is nothing relevant about it. Or at least I didn't seem to think so.

But the Unreliable Narrator – she reveals herself more fully in this tale. Certainly there must be truth hidden in her words, even if they are unreliable by nature.

That is all. There is nothing more I can draw from this tale. But if there is more, then perhaps there is a deeper meaning to it all.

But I have a feeling that such a deeper meaning might not be worth the effort it takes to find it.


	26. VII: The Most Reliable Chapter

**The Most Reliable Chapter**

_Time marches on, but for those who dwell within the confines of the Hollow Forest certainly cannot tell. For those who are fighting for what they believe to be their destinies time is the least relevant concept to them. Day and night are a negligible part of a day to day routine that all of them have effectively abandoned. But now, as time forces them to recognize it, everything shall finally reach that flashy climax I may have mentioned. Of course it isn't over yet, not by a long shot. But where we are now, I suppose you could consider all questions answered. Of course, this excludes the great mystery that my old competitor has left intangible and indistinguishable from the series of lies she has woven to preserve her existence. But as I owe said lie my very life I cannot be so ungrateful as to demand an answer to that as well. _

_Anyhow, no matter what relevance I may have to the situation, I can say with certainty that this is your climax. I can grant you that much. The question is a matter of whether or not said climax is truly worth what is going to be sacrificed in return. But I'm sure our little liar has already prepared enough truth for you at this point that you can come to a conclusion fairly quickly. _

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

* * *

><p><em>The Pivotal Actors are as follows (bolded character gets the perspective):<br>_**Saya **(Age Undefined; Hair: Undefined)  
><strong>Yoko Narukami<strong> (Age 15; Hair: short, silver; Eyes: Red)  
>Irie Kyosuke<br>Shion Sonozaki  
><strong>Satoshi Houjou<strong>

I entered the clinic with my wits about me. I had nothing to fear anymore – Yoko was safe, at least for the moment, and I could finally resolve everything I needed to.

Now is the time. Now is the time that I finally come out with the truth. Because I have lied to you – all of you, for quite some time at that.

At this point you must be suspicious. Clearly I have not been truthful with you, and because of that I may have made things harder for you all to understand. I apologize first and foremost for that. But I cannot help myself – deceit is simply a thing I am proficient in. But I assure you, I no longer have the desire or the motive to lie – simply because everything has changed.

I will not mince words here. I woke up without a single clue as to who I was. I regained what memories I revealed to you all when I regained them. But there was still some deception involved – I didn't explain everything. And instead I brought about an inconsistency that did not occur to me at the time. If you had discovered it then you already know the primary focus of my deception.

My memories as a whole – I remember a far greater deal that I originally let on. Put simply, the majority of my memories returned as you saw them return – when I encountered that man. That man, for whose sake I was willing to deceive everyone around me to protect. I could never tell a soul about him – not even Yoko, my beloved younger sister.

In my state when I stumbled upon Yoko, in all practicality I would have stabbed her on sight. But with a single look at her, I knew. I knew everything about her. Simply because I knew her once before. It saddens me that she simply doesn't remember. But in the end I suppose it was better for the both of us that things stayed that way.

In the end I never told her about him. I never so much as mentioned a single detail about my encounter with him, if only for the hope that Yoko would never be able to remember him.

I didn't know the details at the time. That was why I protected him. But once I stumbled upon Yoko everything changed. Now, I fully intend to kill him. Because of the terrible things he did – not only to me, but to everyone around him.

I know now, no matter how kind he had once been to me, no matter how loving a father figure he may have been, that he must die. Because he betrayed me and left me for dead, but most importantly because he is the one who set all of this in motion.

And because of what happened to Yoko.

I reach into the pocket of the jacket I had been given to by that strange woman earlier who had been a member of that resistance group. Inside was the cellular device she had given to me. Apparently these were relatively hard to come by, but they could emulate a phone call over a long distance without any sort of wires being needed.

I opened the phone and dialed the number that the woman had told me to. I knew there was no one around me, so this call couldn't be overheard.

The call was answered by a man. A rather weak sounding man, but a man none the less.

"_Are you inside?"_ His greeting was straight to the point.

"Yes. I was told to –"

_"I know what you were told to do. They were my orders in the first place."_

"Who exactly are you?"

"_That is of no concern. More importantly you have a job to do."_

"What exactly am I doing? I haven't been told quite just yet."

"_Your job is to break into the lower level of the clinic. You should be able to do that. After all, you spent how many years rotting away down there?"_

"…You know who I am?"

"_I know plenty of things. More things than I would ever want to know. I know things that even you can't even dream about."_

"A bold statement."

"_A true statement. Regardless, you should be capable of opening that door."_

"I'd think that there would be plenty of resistance in a place like this. This _is_ their home base."

"_Remember, illusion to illusion. I'm sure you're familiar with that phrase?"_

"…But I'm not sure that I can manage all of that."

"_The bottom line is that there are no observers from the outside to observe what happens in that clinic. No one even observed the coat you were wearing or this cell phone outside of our controlled environment. The only reason why this call is even happening is because I'm on the outside... Well, there are other conditions that apply hear but those aren't quite as important at the moment."_

"That theory sounds familiar. But I don't think I need to point out more than once that it's just a theory."

"_There is no other way. Rely upon it. No one has observed your person. No one has observed anything about you – you can be carrying any amount of firepower on you. The reality may be entirely different, or it might not have. No one observed otherwise – therefore it is all possible. More importantly…"_

"No one ever observed that I was…"

"_I see you have the right idea. Then you must remember now. You can do it. You and only you can do it, because you are different from the rest of them."_ With that the call disconnected. It ended rather abruptly, but I assumed he didn't have all the time in the world to talk.

He had a point. He was right about what he had said.

Even though I said I would not lie to any of you anymore, I'm afraid I have to lie one more time. I'm not even entirely sure what will happen, but my memories – they are mostly intact. I must lie again, for the sake of remembering.

Or will I be lying? Can you trust what I'm saying?

From the stairwell nearby, four men emerge. Apparently I had made enough noise that they had heard me coming.

And so, in the moment they were upon me, my eyes once again took on that haze of purple.

All four of them stopped in their tracks, observing my transfiguration firsthand. But they were not true observers. Because they were trapped down here, just like I was.

In a matter of seconds what appeared to be black antlers seemed to grow out of my head in an incredibly painful process. In the next my eyes took on the purple haze entirely, and my vision became remarkably…red. My vision seemed to resemble that of a black and white photo, with the only difference being that all traces of white were blood red.

My eyes flashed. Memories continued to flash before my eyes. That man appeared once again. Many of my flashes involved that man. But these flashes seemed to go even further back in time.

In my hands, a long golden sword appeared. The blade itself was shaped very strangely – it was as if it were a large golden tree branch with seven smaller branches.

And then I knew. And then I knew everything there was to know.

This weapon was the Onigari no Ryuou. This weapon belonged to…

Hainiryun Leasomuru Jieda. My…mother?

No, perhaps an extension of her. Perhaps what she left behind. She might as well be my mother, although it is more accurate to say that we are one and the same.

That had to be correct.

Yes, that's right.

With a single swing of the massive weapon all four of the men drop dead on the floor. I take a step forward to find my ability to walk remarkably unchanged. I assume that the stairwell those men had emerged from would be my ticket to where I needed to go.

I made my way down the stairwell. I hear more footsteps, and so I evade the men by hiding behind a tall cabinet that was off to the side. They pass me without an issue and I am able to proceed further.

Oh, I'm sorry. I lied.

I faced the four of them head on and with a single swing of the Onigari no Ryuou I sever the heads of all four of them. They drop to the floor and I walk over their dead bodies.

I continue down the hallway. Another man approaches. Once he stares at me for a few seconds he realizes that I'm not supposed to be there. But he simply runs straight forward at me, and with the small weapon I had on me I was able to get a running jump and stab him between the eyes.

Oh, I'm sorry. I lied.

He takes one look at me and then turns away, running in fear in the opposite direction. But with my inhuman speed I manage to catch up to him and I thrust the Onigari no Ryuou through his chest. I wrench the blade out of him, but with the seven branches it takes a bit longer since the blade had wedged itself through most of his ribs and his heart at the same time.

On the other end of the hallway is another man who apparently takes notice of me. I quickly run out of his line of sight and as he comes down the hallway stab him in the knee. He kneels over and I quickly send the weapon through his back approximately where his heart would be. He falls over and I step over him and quickly head down the hallway, assuming that I was heading in the right direction.

Oh, I'm sorry. I lied.

On the other end of the hallway is another man who apparently takes notice of me. He turns away at the sight of the Onigari no Ryuou, but as he turns I somehow manage to stop time altogether. I rather slowly walk up towards him and strike along his neck. As time resumes, my blade has already returned to my side and his neck essentially explodes from the inside. His blood sprays but I pay no mind and I continue onward.

I find another stairwell. As I proceed down it I get an uncanny feeling that I've been here before – but of course I've been here before. I spent most of my life down here. At the bottom two more men are waiting. They apparently hear me coming down the stairs but I manage to hide as they turn around and head upward.

Oh, I'm sorry. I lied.

I find another stairwell. As I proceed down it I get an uncanny feeling that I've been here before – but of course I've been here before. I spent most of my life down here. At the bottom two more men are waiting. Without even giving them the chance to run for their lives I kill them both on the spot with the Onigari no Ryuou.

I finally reach what I believe to be my destination – the rather large and well built doorway that would lead to the lower level of the clinic that I now had very little trouble remembering. The doorway itself was sealed very tightly.

I get the door open. Does it really matter how I did it? All that matters is that it was opened. Either I discovered by some stroke of luck how to get the door opened or I slashed it in half with the Onigari no Ryuou. At this point I could care less.

Going into this closed off area of the clinic I was finally able to slow down and take in everything. I knew there would be no one at all in this section – the only person I would find would be _him_.

The clinic's lower level was very poorly maintained. It was teeming with rodent life and most of the lights seemed to be broken entirely. The entire area was very dimly lit. I could barely see where I was going.

With each step I took I saw flashes of this very corridor – the only difference being that it was in the state it was years ago, while I lived here under _his_ care. I was almost brought to tears. I had only ever been living in the outside world for about a year before that disaster happened – this place had always been my true home.

My mother, Hainiryun, was never around. I doubt I saw her more than once, but that was even further back in time. I can barely even remember the details of back then but as it was now I barely remembered what she looked like. I'm telling the full truth – I never saw her as a mother figure. In fact, I only remembered her name just before.

My father was the man who was always living here. That man wasn't my father by blood, of course, but he was the closest thing to a father that I ever had. Doubtlessly he was still here. Doubtlessly he was the one responsible for everything that had happened.

I continued down the hallway I knew by heart. I was fully prepared for what was about to happen. But considering how he already knew that I was here, he certainly knew that I was the one who would go after him. As a result, he certainly would make it impossible for the possibility of me being the child of a goddess to remain unobserved. It would be observed – and that would be my greatest weakness. That would remove all traces of my power – a power that I could barely even understand.

I proceeded down the hallway and into the room that I had spent the majority of my life wasting away in. Although from my perspective at that time I hadn't been wasting away at all. I didn't even know there was an outside world for the longest time.

I took one step in that room and all my doubts were cleared. My memory was crystal clear. I remembered everything – everything, including things I didn't want to remember.

I remember growing up in this room. Its once white walls were now stained green and brown.

But that man was here, as he always had been.

Irie Kyosuke stood across from me. His eyes were similar to those of the deranged men that blindly followed him. His lab coat was severely dirtied and despite the fact they were broken he still wore his glasses. This was a shell of a man – a man who raised me like a daughter and not only cast away myself but his real daughter as well. He abandoned her to a life she had no opportunity to choose and abandoned me in a shack in the middle of nowhere.

He smiles. It is a smile that is so familiar but it is a smile that I despise.

"I knew you'd be back…Saya."

"I'd knew you'd be down here. Rotting away with the rest of this terrible place."

"This is your room. Surely you r-remember." His voice seemed to skip over octaves as he spoke.

"I remember. I remember everything. Including how you left me to die."

The smile on his face seemed to deteriorate. "But c-certainly you have to remember who raised you."

"There was once a person I thought I could call a father. That person is standing before me. But then you betrayed me. But not even just me – you betrayed _her _as well."

"Who a-are you t-talking about?"

"You can't hide from your mistakes forever. I'm here to ensure that."

"W-Whatever do you m-mean?"

"I'm here to kill you. I'm here to make sure you can't harm anyone else. I know you're the one behind all of this. And I'm going to make sure you pay for your crimes."

"S-Surely you d-don't mean that…" As he spoke those words, he suddenly shouted and lashed out at me with what appeared to be a machete. He was about to bring it down upon me but then a sudden gunshot rang out. As it was aimed in Irie's direction I assumed that it was Yoko.

She really came. She really came to help me.

I stabbed his extended arm in his daze with my dagger like weapon, causing him to drop the machete. I had to release the weapon, but I grabbed the machete and therefore ended up with the better of the two weapons. I back up immediately and find myself almost falling over. But Yoko grabs me.

"I'm glad you came."

"I wasn't going to abandon you halfway." She speaks. I relax for the moment.

"This is d-disappointing, Saya. I thought you would've b-been better than this. W-Why can't you f-fight me like the demon you a-are?"

"Because I don't need to."

"B-Because you _can't_." He laughed as he said that. Apparently he knew the answer to the question he had asked me. "All because of your friend. Because unless she dies you just can't d-do it, can y-you?" He continues to laugh.

"…"

Yoko tightens her grip on my shoulder. "I don't need to know. All I plan on doing is getting you out of here. But first off…"

Irie suddenly moves into action.

"Shall I kill her for you?" He suddenly wrenches the weapon out of his arm and tried to lash out at Yoko, who tries to pull the trigger. But apparently the gun jams and I am forced to move into action. But this time he effortlessly shoves me out of the way as he had before and manages to slash across Yoko's cheek, missing his intended target – that being her neck.

She tries to move away and figure out how to fix the gun, but in the process of doing so he knocks it out of her grasp and grabs her by the neck, lifting her into the air.

"Weak. To be expected of a woman – especially a woman like you. You go to that boarding school, don't you? That uniform – you're as worthless as anyone else who wears that uniform. I've seen it before – many times before. She wore it. That other girl w-wore it too. That girl…Yes, that girl who threw herself at my feet because…"

Yoko stares at him with a look of intensity.

"You- who are you? I don't recognize you."

She doesn't answer.

"Answer me, or I'll kill her." He directs the blade towards me for a brief moment.

"…Yoko Narukami."

He looks at her for a few seconds before he spits in her face.

"You disgust me. You aren't even worth killing." He throws her against the wall and she crashes down.

"Is that the way…" I try to speak. "That a father treats his daughter?"

Yoko sends me a look of confusion, while Irie walks over to me and lifts me into the air. He uses the dagger and cuts along my healing leg wound. I scream in pain as it reopens and as quickly as he had hoisted me into the air he tosses me off in a random direction.

"If you keep running your mouth I'll have to kill you too, Saya."

I black out as I hit the floor, but not before I see Irie once again turn towards Yoko. I pray that he spares her. But I know my praying wouldn't do any good.

* * *

><p>As I sit there I can't help but wonder what the hell just happened. But staring this man down – it was as if something horrifying that I had repressed years ago had been coming back to me.<p>

This man – Saya called him my father. But my father –

My father was an asshole, but he wasn't…He's not this man, let's just put it that way.

I was born into a rich family. My parents generally ignored me for a good deal of the time. Eventually they decided that placing me in someone else's hands would be the best path to take and they decided that they would spend the money to send me to St. Lucia's. My entire life up to that point was nothing worth discussing. Then again, I didn't even remember the majority of it.

This man – certainly I had seen him somewhere before.

But I didn't give a damn. He was trying to hurt Saya – that was enough reason for me to want him dead.

"It's a s-shame you had to find out t-this way. I was h-hoping you'd just die and we'd never have t-to meet."

"What are you even saying?"

"It's the truth. I-If you are who you s-say you are, then it's the t-truth."

I didn't respond.

"But I don't e-even care. Who c-cares if you were my k-kid? I n-never gave t-two shits about y-you to begin with…!"

Now this man was saying that I was his child. What is this world coming to?

"Saya was t-the only one. My p-prized experiment. B-But it's all her fault anyhow."

"Experiment? What are you even saying?" My anger towards this man seemed to release itself whenever he bad mouthed Saya.

"S-She was the only one I cared about. S-She was proof that s-science was w-wrong. S-She was my c-child, raised so I-I could be famous."

He pointed the dagger at me once again. "Y-You, you w-weren't even supposed to exist. Y-You're just the problem I e-ended up with w-when I knocked up that w-woman. B-But I didn't g-get rid o-of you right a-away. I let y-you be her little sister for a l-little while. I s-should've just had you killed. Y-You turned her against me…You…You….You…!"

He threw the dagger at me. He missed by a large margin but he ended up just walking up to me and started to choke me again.

"You-You're the demon here…She was a miracle that came from heaven…You're just a-a bitch that wasn't aborted!" He continued to choke me. "Y-You caused me…Do you have any idea…I…I would've….I still feel it – getting beaten up by…I swear to god I'll…" He continued to strangle me. I couldn't breathe in the slightest.

I managed to kick him firmly in the stomach, causing him to let go. I shoved him as hard as I could, but he just got right back up.

I didn't want to hear any of this. It wasn't true.

"You're a liar. You're lying to me."

"Y-Your father? T-hat misguided politician? Yu Narukami? That old bastard? I t-tricked him i-into taking you. He n-never wanted you either. B-But he had you l-legally. S-So I was free." He started laughing. But then his face turned into a deep scowl . "B-But now you're here…You've taken her from me…Why? Why the fuck do you exist?" He stomped down on my face multiple times before kicking me off into another direction.

He said my father's name. I couldn't counteract his statements anymore.

It was true, wasn't it?

I was the product of _this _deranged lunatic?

"…A-and even then, I still did everything they said…Why? Why did it have to be me? Why couldn't I just…!" He kicked me once again. I was wondering why he hadn't just outright stabbed me at this point. "Fuck everything! Fuck you! Fuck you why won't you just roll over and die?" He continued to kick me. The pain became worse and worse with each kick. As he kept going I eventually snapped.

"Well if you hate me so much then why not just kill me?" I scream. "Or are you too much of a coward to do it yourself?"

He more or less brought all of his weight down on my face with his foot. My nose easily could have been broken at this point and I never even would have noticed.

"Fuck you!" He continued his motion.

This man was my real father – he had forced me upon my father, hence why he never seemed to give a damn about what I did. My life up until this point has been influenced too greatly by this man. Maybe things would have been different. Maybe he wouldn't have been given the chance to screw up Harumi as badly as he did.

Maybe my friends would still be alive.

I stood up after he stopped trying to stomp my face in. He had the dagger in his hand and he ended up stabbing me in the arm. But I pulled out the dagger and rather shakily tried to point it at him.

"Trying to kill your old man now? A bit braver than that other girl, sure, but not good enough." He seemed to grin. "At least that other girl was more subservient. She came running and threw herself at my feet begging because she wanted her sister back…Ah, I'm glad I drugged them both. After all, it set all of this in motion. More importantly…"

I had a very good idea of what he was about to get at. I didn't let him say another word slandering Harumi.

I ran at him with the knife.

I don't give a damn who this fucker is.

I swear to god I'm going to kill him.

He managed to grab it.

"Ah, it seems you're very easy to taunt. I never touched your friend. Her sister on the other hand might not be the same story."

I tried to wrench the dagger out of his grasp again but it proved to be no use.

"Fuck this shit, I'm done with you…!" He forced me to the ground and brought the dagger over his head.

He was about to bring it down.

"Goodnight, you dumb bitch…!"

I prepared for the death I was certain I was going to be dealt.

But then I hear a loud pitched scream.

He brings the dagger down.

But then suddenly, before I even had the time to register what had happened, Saya had jumped in front of me and took the dagger herself. The machete from earlier was now solidly wrenched into Irie's side. He howled in pain while I screamed in fear.

* * *

><p>He stabbed me. He stabbed me. He really did stab me. I'm so happy. But I'm so sad at the same time. I'm happy because I saved Yoko and I can finally set myself free of him. But I'm sad because I've stabbed him too. Or maybe I'm not either. I've deceived so many at this point that I might as well be deceiving myself too.<p>

I betrayed you all. I betrayed the person most important to me. I betrayed so many people, and all of it was to protect him. I didn't warn them about anything. I hid Yoko's identity from her. I hid her father's identity from her as well. I hid so much from her. I was a complete fool, but in the end I achieved my goal. This machete that I've lodged in his side has yet to fall from my hands, and every second it slides further into his side. He betrayed me, but I was ready to betray him from the start.

But back to my current situation. I'm dying. That much I know.

Or maybe, because I am a liar by nature, that I'm just tricking myself into believing that I'm dying. And so I'll die, because I believe I am going to die. This curse works both ways, although I'm certain my mother is far more adept than I at maintaining such a thing.

This place, where I am dying – it was a place of security for me once, as I grew up in this village as a common child, even though I was demon by blood. This hospital, now the heart of this corrupt movement through the village, was once home to many kind people who helped me adjust to my life as a human.

It's about time I told the whole truth, and therefore nothing but the truth.

Doctor Irie – he was essentially my father. That was why I was so willing to protect him. Because it is only natural for a child to want to protect a parent.

I was always tolerant of blood. I simply hid from you the signs that would point to him – I avoided the trail of blood because he was the one painting the objects. I lied about the files, but that turned out to be my undoing. I established a character – so I could hide the truth from you all.

But flash forward twelve years later. I don't have a father, and I have effectively killed and have been killed by whatever semblance of one there was left in this doctor. Is it the curse? Surely. Is it my fault? Surely.

Irie manages to force me away from him as I stand there in the daze from the wound. The machete is ripped out of his side as I refuse to let go of it, but he seems practically immune to the ridiculous amounts of pain that are doubtlessly surging through his side.

"I s-see…Saya, you've disappointed me. B-but you've made me p-proud at the same time." His gaze was still as empty as it had been then. Now, with his attention off of Yoko and now fully on me, perhaps she can escape.

I tried to make some sort of noise, but he had stabbed me roughly in the stomach and I found myself unable to make a sound. He proceeded closer and closer, likely preparing to finish me off. At this point I've tried to back up, but I've already fallen over onto the floor. Crawling away backwards certainly wouldn't accomplish anything.

"I l-lost everything to get here. I-I never had anything to show for the things I-I'd accomplished. I s-suppose that in the end i-it was all my fault. I d-did go with that woman's plan, after all. But no matter how hard I seemed to try I-I would always just end up losing something. B-But you were different. You were the symbol of my hard work – you were an alien, yet you were able to live amongst real people, a-and I could take pride in you. But n-now you've gone and betrayed me t-too." He took a massive breath before essentially throwing the knife at me. It managed to lodge itself in my left shoulder, effectively ruining that arm altogether.

He inhaled and suddenly began to speak a tad more normally. "They said I could do something with my power. They said I could make a difference. And they told me that I'd inherit this place, after all of these years. Hinamizawa is _mine_. It will always be _mine_. And no one can take that away from me. Not even you, Saya."

He walks closer, likely to stab me with whatever it was he was going to stab me with. I couldn't even remember if it was a dagger or a knife or if I had the dagger and he had the machete. My mind feels so empty.

But as he does so, I see Yoko stand behind him. She pushes him to the ground and reaches for the weapon that has fallen from my grasp. With a single swing she lodges the blade into Irie's skull.

And just like that Irie Kyosuke was no more.

Or so I wanted to believe.

He was so inhuman I couldn't even believe it myself.

He stood up, the blade apparently not having gone far enough through his skull. He pulls the blade out of his scalp and stands at the ready to kill Yoko. It seems that he no longer has any sort of hesitation left. I doubt he can even register who it is he is about to kill. The father definitely would not kill the daughter. That much had to be true.

But it seemed like the daughter who never knew her father couldn't kill him either.

So that means that I had to be the one to do it.

I reach for the dagger that Irie dropped and with what little energy I had left I ran it through where I believed one of his lungs to be.

He bled superfluously. That must have been where I had hit.

He stopped and turned towards me, dropping the machete as he stumbled in my direction. Yoko tried to move into action but I signaled her to stop.

He stumbles forward as I back up. I fall over, having little to no energy left. Irie stands over me, a look of sheer terror on his face. His mouth moves as if to say something.

But then he falls over on his side and at long last he expires.

And I am soon to join him.

Yoko runs over to me. She isn't hurt. I silently thank whoever's hand had prevented her death for their hard work.

She calls out my name. At least that's what I believed that she said.

"I don't have any time left."

Her mouth moves again. I still can't hear her.

"I'm sorry. I can't hear you…I can't…"

My vision starts to swim. My stomach is still in so much pain.

I suddenly realize. He hadn't stabbed me in the stomach. He'd stabbed me in the heart. That was why this was so painful.

"Yoko, please…You have to live… I have to give you at least that much…"

She says something. Her eyes are filled to the brim with tears.

"I'm sorry…I stole your father from you. He went crazy because of me… I'm so sorry. Maybe things would have been different."

She shakes her head. She says more words – words that I desperately want to hear but simply cannot.

"I have to tell you…Everything. I lied…I'm so sorry. I hid everything from you…That I knew you. That we were…almost related…I knew what would happen, but I still brought you here…Because I didn't know what I would do if I had to face him alone…I'm so sorry…"

She says more words. Her face is stained with her tears now.

"I told you everything…But I lied. I was always lying to you…I'm so sorry."

She continues to speak. I would give anything to hear her.

Then my vision swims. I can't even see her now.

I have to make this quick.

"I love you, Yoko. I wish we could have been sisters for a long time…"

I can't even make her out anymore from the mesh of objects that form a cloud of dark green. I can't see anything anymore.

The strange thing is that I'm dying.

But since I've been lying to you this whole time, can you trust me?

Or should I have Yoko tell you instead?

"Yoko…Please, I want to you squeeze my hand if you say yes."

I hesitate for a moment.

"Will you go back? Will you go back home and live your life as best as you can? Will you put all of this behind you? Will you try to start things over? If you do, then maybe my life can have some meaning."

I feel a soft squeeze.

I was sure that I smiled.

I couldn't even feel her hand anymore.

I had lost all of my senses.

I waited for the inevitable black void to swallow me whole.

* * *

><p><em>I can't save you, can I?<em>

It had begun to pour rain as the small war in the village continued to rage on – and as it did I found it all the more difficult to keep up with Shion's incredibly fast pace. It was as if nothing had changed. I was struggling to keep my eyes open while she hadn't so much as even recognized that it was raining. She didn't seem to care – everything about her gaze, aside from the rather apparent lust for blood – seemed entirely void of everything.

I was losing – slowly but steadily. One wouldn't be able to tell looking at the two of us fighting the way we are, but I was certainly getting weaker by the moment. This hadn't happened in our last fight, even though the circumstances haven't changed all that much. Perhaps it was my lack of will to kill her. Perhaps it was knowing that no matter how hard I tried the girl who felt so strongly about me would forever be lost to the shadow of her younger sister that had made me suddenly lose all fighting poise. I wasn't even remotely sure how to go about beating her now, especially without killing her. But with each sword blow and with each opening I pass up completely it gets closer and closer to the point where subduing her will be completely impossible.

Shion takes another running leap. These tend to hurt the most.

She misses this time, but before I can properly counter she rolls out of the way, her robe now more or less covered in mud. The rain seemed to wash it off but it wasn't as if she had any concept of how hard it would be to move around coated in mud. She didn't seem to take any mind – mentally or physically at that.

I see another opening. This time I go for it. Against her left shoulder, I manage to barely graze her. So far I still have yet to hit her – I'm not even sure exactly how or why she's managed to live up to her word so far, but that needs to change sometime soon. That is, if I manage to survive long enough to break her seemingly impenetrable guard – which probably isn't even all that impenetrable. It's as if Mion Sonozaki knows I won't touch her sister – it's as if she knows everything.

I suddenly get really pissed off. What if that was the case? What if she knew the entire time and just played dumb about it? What if she knows what she's doing? What if she isn't crazy? What if she was a evil as I had originally believed her to be? What if she was doing this so her sister would have to suffer in her place?

I suddenly let out a loud cry. I then go on the offensive for the first time in the duration of this fight. I swing my sword somewhat wildly before I settle for just trying to punch her in the face. My fist was met with steel, and she took the opening to shove me with her elbow – a move that led me in the perfect position. Her right arm was essentially stuck in that position for the next few seconds and I had been able to stomach the pain rather nicely.

Her sword was still in contact with my fist. She had moved to elbow me, and in the process left her side – the side closest to my sword – completely unguarded. All I had to do was grab her sword right now and get a stab in. I would try to aim somewhere non-vital, but at this point just getting any sort of hit would prove impossible. I would have to end this right now if I wanted any hope.

My extended hand closes around the blade and I go for the stabbing motion. Apparently she sees it coming but doesn't make any movement to avoid it. She doesn't even struggle.

I see the trap about a fraction of a second before it hits me. She has a dagger in the hand closest to me. I back away before she is able to sink it into my stomach and she laughs.

"I thought I had you that time."

"Your acting performance was weak. That was all I needed."

"Oh well." She instantly moves toward me, with the dagger in one hand and the katana simply being held with a single hand.

She moves in with the knife first. My blade will block it instantaneously. The sword will be swung at an improper angle and won't be able to do much damage while one-handed. She's making things too obvious again. Now if only I could figure out what she was going to do…

There we go.

She attempts to drive into me with the dagger and seems to lag with the sword. She isn't putting any emphasis on the sword. Her arm isn't tense enough. The dagger here is the main source of the problem. She misses entirely, but she was supposed to miss.

She lazily swings the katana. I move to block it, but she ends up jamming it into the wet soil.

I see it now. She's getting lazy with that other hand. I can finally see the hour or so of constant combat tearing a hole in her.

She let's go of the katana.

I drop mine as well.

As she tries to go for a backstab with the dagger, I grab her forearm and force her out to the side. I fasten one arm around her neck, pulling her into a headlock of sorts. The dagger goes flying and for the first time I have the upper hand.

"Not bad…" She speaks in the same condescending tone of voice.

"I knew I'd get it eventually. But you got a bit too sloppy. Now if only I had a weapon hidden on me, then I could wrap things up right now."

"But you're too classy for that."

"Is there such a thing as classy sword fighting?"

Instead of trying to come up with a response, she settles for kissing me, given the close proximity of our faces. I don't react to it in any positive sort of manner. She's plotting something, obviously. She doesn't stop, however. She tries to deepen the kiss as much as possible.

My mind wavers for a moment. I remember the limited number of times we did this before coming to this village. But then I remember how she more or less did all of that because I looked like someone else.

I strengthen the head lock. But as I do so I figure out that her left arm wasn't as restrained as her right arm.

Once again I see it coming. Although this time I can't do anything about it.

The needle – what I believe to be a needle is suddenly forced into my skin. The needle grows tight as I try to struggle, but as I do so her right arm becomes free and she forces me down. The needle grows even tighter and I am finally able to see what it was she had stabbed me with.

A syringe. A syringe that clearly had something inside it.

She laughs before trying to back away from me, nearly tripping over her sword as she stumbles over towards the bridge. I try to get closer, ignoring my sword completely as I grasp my arm in pain. I see black fluid of some sort oozing from my arm.

"I take it that wasn't marker ink?" I still find the time to be witty as I stumble forward onto the ground. My head was searing with pain and I only barely managed to make it to the bridge.

"Sadly, no it wasn't." She laughs with that same malicious smile plastered on her face. "That's about the heaviest dose I could find. The director has all kinds of things in that clinic. Antibiotics, coloring books, dead bodies – suicide drugs…" She starts laughing as if she's the most hilarious person in the world.

"So how long do I have here?"

"Five minutes. Then you start clawing your throat out."

"What a cheap trick."

"You would've had me. I wasn't going to lose – no matter what."

"I guess you always did cheat, didn't you?"

She cocks her head slightly to the side as if in questioning. Her face seemed as bored and uninterested as ever, although every few seconds her mouth would break into a twisted smile before instantly reverting back to the stoic look she was giving me.

"You were never as good at games as you wanted to be. So you would cheat all the time. Am I remembering right?"

"Eh, those club games? What a waste of time."

"So then you never did give a shit, did you?"

"About what?"

"About any of them. Any of the people who died because of what your family was trying to hide."

She laughed more. That sickening laugh was about all I could take. "All I care about is killing people. Killing people who look down on me. People who betray me. People who pretend to love me and end up just using me for self gratification. All I care about is killing. Because when I kill, I know I'm alive. I know I'm me. That's why I'll kill everyone. So I can keep on living."

I couldn't come up with anything to say to that. I just groaned in more pain. My throat was becoming very hot. That was probably the drug settling in.

She suddenly walks over to me.

"I suppose I'll give you an easier death. Since you almost managed to finish me off and all."

"Tell me something."

"What?"

"Will you let Shion go?"

"What are you saying?"

"Will you let your sister go?"

She hesitates before speaking rather quietly. "Never. Because then I won't be able to kill anymore."

In that moment she hoists me into the air and in one quick motion throws me over the edge of the bridge. All I am able to see is the terrifying water below – the water so heavily disturbed by the storm. There was no way I could possibly make it out of this one.

I am allowed one final glimpse of Shion as I plummet to my death.

Everything goes black. All I can see is the burned image of Shion's face.

She was crying, wasn't she? That wasn't the rain, was it?

She was crying. She definitely was.

If I can die knowing that some semblance of that girl still exists, then I can die slightly less pissed off.

All I can see is black. I never even felt myself collide with the water. I'm so sure I'm dead.

_I couldn't save you. No matter how hard I tried._

_I'm sorry. _

I can still hear the rain. The rain, and the ever present sound of the cicadas. Their cries once again ring out through the torrent of water. They will cry. They will cry forever. Because there is simply no hope. Not for me, not for Shion, not for Rai, not for anyone.

I can still hear them, even now. Even when I'm pretty sure I've been neatly slipped off my mortal coil. They continue to cry, forever and ever.

I can't even begin to count the number of times I've heard the same repeating noise. I've heard it enough times for two people. But no matter how irritating or how redundant that sound seems to become, the message it brings to those who hear it is the same.

The cicadas know. They know everything. And they want everyone to know that. Because even if people die, the cicadas will remember them until they too die. And then they will be replaced by more cicadas that will carry the same message.

The cicadas are everywhere. And so they know everything.

The cicadas are everywhere. And so they see everything.

The cicadas are everywhere. And so they remember everything.

Maybe they'll remember me as well. Maybe they'll remember Satoshi Houjou. Or Rai Sumidera. Or whoever the fuck I'm supposed to be.

Maybe they'll remember everything about me. Maybe I'll have a place in their mantra as well. Maybe I can finally join the others – the others who died. Maybe I'll remember who I'm supposed to be completely this time. I wonder, did they go to heaven? Or did they go to hell? I don't even know.

The cicadas probably know. Yeah, it would be just like them to know something like that.

I wonder, will there even be a heaven or a hell? Will I just stay like this forever? Is this my afterlife? Is this what it all amounts to?

Maybe I should ask the cicadas. They'll probably know. After all, I can hear them. They're all around me. So they know everything.

I wonder, maybe I've become a cicada myself. Maybe that's why I can hear them even now.

Then maybe I'll know everything one of these days.

But I don't want to. I don't want to know everything.

So maybe… The cicadas don't want to know either?

I know something now.

Because the cicadas know everything.

It's hopeless. There is no hope.

There is no way to save anyone.

Fate will not allow it.

And fate is truly absolute.

That is why they cry.

Because not even the cicadas can defy fate.

So then how could I?

This was simply

My destiny.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>_

Thus concludes this chapter. A bit overall dreary and depressing, but hey, I rated this story M, so I've got to start cranking out that dark and disturbing content again. This will be the last chapter that draws heavily on it, though, so if it turned you off at all you won't have to worry about it in the remainder of the story. This chapter in particular was especially hard to write; given how I needed to gauge which chunks of content were too overboard and which I could keep. In fact, I ended up censoring quite a bit. So you can imagine what this chapter was originally going to be like. The next chapter, the final chapter of the story, will be yet another multiple character perspective one. And this one will pretty much answer everything that needs to be answered. Well, mostly everything.

Also, in the event that you had absolutely _no _idea what all of the scenes with Saya were about, then I don't blame you. The next chapter will make things a little bit easier to understand. A bit. Hopefully it won't detract all that much from the overall story if you still don't understand it.

So far the death count is pretty high for the main cast. Sadly I'm not going to stop it where it is. I'm still contemplating whether or not I have to kill off certain people. But there's someone I've tried to kill in the last two chapters that simply didn't work out correctly, and so they still haven't died just yet. You'll probably guess who. In fact I've probably already said too much.

Following that chapter, there will be a second Wrap Party. This one will be a bit more interesting and a bit less confusing and potentially irrelevant sounding. Of course this last chapter explored the nature of the relevant and irrelevant material overall. This one will additionally clarify some stuff about Astaroth. Or Saturn Anne. Or whatever name I settled on.

In addition, I will make a quick sort of announcement at the end of the Wrap Party. Might not be a happy one, but we'll see.

Anyhow, that's all for this chapter, and I hope the remainder of you will stick around for the last two.

…Alright, maybe I'm not quite done with this chapter just yet. But only a little bit more. I promise.

* * *

><p><em>I never could protect you. I was always so weak. Now I'm no different. I can kill so many people, but I can't protect you. Death for the sake of death is meaningless. Maybe you helped me understand that, even if you were misguided the whole time. You and I are too similar. So then I can't stop killing either. <em>

_Saving you is all I desire. All I can do now is kill. But maybe I can give death meaning._

_So I'll kill you. I'll kill you so I can save you. _

Cicadas. Cicadas.

Cries. Cries.

Cries.

More cries.

When the cicadas cry there are no survivors. When the cicadas cry people die. Every second of every day someone dies somewhere and the cicadas know. They cry out, in agony, in joy, and in fear. They cry out with emotions – emotions that they cannot express in any way other than their cry. They can cry. Because they are allowed to cry. They deserve the choice to cry. Because they know everything. And they don't want to.

They don't want to. Even though they must.

I didn't want to kill Shion. Even though I had to.

Are those comparable? I don't even care.

But they keep on crying. So maybe they're saying yes, or maybe they're saying no.

Cries. Cries.

Cries. Cries.

But then another.

Another sound pierces the sounds of the cicadas and the ever roaring wind and water.

A sound – a ringing noise.

Is that a phone?

I feel something. A soft vibration of sorts. I could feel – I could feel something, something warm. Something tangible. My shapeless form finally had shape. I could feel. My body – my human body. I could clearly feel everything. I could feel the wind, the water, and the ground beneath me.

The ground? The wind? The water?

My eyes suddenly snap open. Rain still falls upon my face and the cicadas continue to cry. But I can see the dark and dreary sky, painted a nearly black shade of grey.

I'm alive.

I'm sure that even by some miracle that caused me to survive the fall, it was well past five minutes. I should've been dead by now. But my throat no longer carried that irritating sensation. I no longer had strange impulses in my brain.

I suddenly remember the sound and the vibration.

My pocket apparently had something inside it that I wasn't aware of.

Before even trying to determine where I am, I pull out a small black device of some sort.

I recognize it – it was a cell phone. A hard thing to come by, but a thing none the less.

I turned the phone on the side with the buttons on it. I saw a small green phone button. I decided that pressing it would connect me to whoever on earth was calling this phone that I didn't even know I had. But I decided to take my chances – I doubt I would've had this on by mistake. This was here for a reason.

I press the button and the phone connects.

"_Satoshi Houjou." _A dark and musty voice calls out from the other end of the connection.

Well someone knows exactly who I am.

"Who are you?"

"_Ah, the question of the day, isn't it?"_

"Just tell me who you are…And why do I have this phone?"

"_You have that phone because I arranged it so it would be planted on you."_

"Planted? Who planted it?"

"_One of your own. Who just so happens to be working for me."_

Was there really one of the former villagers who was a mole on the inside for someone?

"Why? Why go out of your way to do this sort of thing?"

"_Because this needs to be done. You are the only one who can be entrusted with this task."_

"What _task_? Can't I just get out of here?"

"_The task of killing Mion Sonozaki. It's unfortunate, but you are the only one who can kill her in that village."_

"…Just who the hell are you?"

The man sighs before giving a rather belated response. _"Call me K-One."_

The man calling himself K-One… It was a strange name indeed, but clearly this man was more involved in all of this than I had initially expected. I had to trust him. I had no choice in the matter.

"And what do you mean, _I _have to do it? Just get someone to bust a cap in her ass or something. There are plenty of people with guns."

"_It's not as simple as that. The conditions of that village are beyond the natural scale of things. The devil himself might as well be involved this time around."_

"And what the hell does that mean?"

"_Hinamizawa was a home for a demonic race. That demonic race, while rooted in the history of that village, can both exist and not exist at the same time. They are capable of twisting reality to their liking and provide two equally existing truths – two truths that ultimately end in the same result and in the same way but for two different reasons. The village is now in their hands – and before the fog lifts the fate of the village and all those within its clutches are left up to them. Mion Sonozaki shall not die by anyone's hand but yours. There will always be a rational and irrational explanation for that fact."_

"And why does the irrational explanation even matter?"

"_It doesn't. Not to you. Because you are human. That is why you must ignore the possibilities and aim for a singular end point. Earth to earth. What happens simply happens, and there isn't anything else influencing it. That is why you must kill Mion. Because the stakes are too high if anyone else tries to."_

"I have _no_ idea what you're talking about. But what do I have to do?"

"_Hm?"_

"What do I have to do to stop her? She can't be left to suffer like that any longer."

"_I see… Very well then, I shall give to you the rational explanation. That girl is still as much of Shion Sonozaki as she's ever been. But years of isolation in whatever hell hole she crawled into made her contract the syndrome. She believes she is Mion Sonozaki. The alternate explanation for that being that she is being possessed by her."_

"The syndrome…? The Hinamizawa Curse and the syndrome _are_ the same thing?"

"_Indeed. And the only way to break the syndrome without at the stage she's stuck in is by corrupting the cause from the inside out. The syndrome is purely psychological. And so the only way to break it down is through psychological means. Do that, and you can end her life." _

"And how do I go about doing that?"

"_You have to find her. Find her and tell her everything you feel. Convince her that she doesn't have to rely on her insanity to live. She is beyond saving, but if you can stop her for just a moment that would be all you need. Don't read this the wrong way, though. There's no saving her with the power of love or some bullshit fantasy crap like that. You simply have to make her believe in something, even if for just a moment."_

"Okay." I nod my head slightly. I sort of knew what he was saying. I didn't even have the slightest clue as to why it would work. But I had to trust him. K-One was the last chance I had.

"_Are you ready?"_

"Ready as I'll ever be."

I would go back. I would find her again. And I would have to convince her of one and only one thing.

That she didn't have to kill to live. That Shion Sonozaki could exist because someone could exist with her.

And then I would betray my very words.

Or perhaps there was a way.

I had the hope that there was. And so I stood up and walked off – off towards certain doom.


	27. VIII: Only Hope Chapter

So here I am, with the last two chapters of this story. They're both really long, so find yourself a decent chunk of free time before you start reading them.

* * *

><p><strong>Only Hope Chapter<strong>

_Death is but a pathway to the world beyond. Death is not surmountable, as fate or destiny might be, but instead it is absolute. At the end of the beaten path that one takes through life one reaches the same road that many others have taken before him and all others will take after him. Death is imminent. Death is absolute. No matter who you are, what you achieve in life, what you believe in or what you intend to do, you are granted one fate that cannot be surmounted. _

_If perhaps humanity were not so naturally evil, then perhaps the fate of death would not be so eternal. But such is not the case. _

_It matters not who you are. Death awaits you. Death is the sole and singular absolute fate. _

_So behold, he who has defied even death, and has crawled out of the very depths of Hell to defy the universe and its rules. Behold he who cannot live and yet shall not die. Behold he who shall end, yet shall live forever. _

_~Dr. Saturn Anne_

* * *

><p><em>The Pivotal Actors are as follows (bolded character gets the perspective):<br>_**The End Dreamer **(Details Redacted)  
><strong>Natsumi Kimiyoshi<br>****Satoshi Houjou  
><strong>**Astaroth** (Details Redacted)

I sat there, still somewhat drained from my superfluous explanation – or rather, my confession. I had told him everything there was to know about me. I didn't even attempt to lie or blotch the truth in any significant way – I told him everything, because I knew he would tell me everything. I told him about everyone – I even told him about Oishi.

I sat there, still shaking slightly, as he began to tell his side of the story.

As for who he is? Well, I'm about to find out.

He had gently embraced me nigh but a moment ago as he helped me recover from my sudden outburst. He had been waiting silently almost the entire time, and once I had calmed down he prepared to say his half.

"What I'm about to tell you is the whole and completely unadulterated truth. I hope you can believe me."

I didn't understand why he felt the need to say that. I already told him my story. I was practically willing to take his secret with me to the grave. I knew he was going to do the same – that was how our love worked. Or rather, how it would finally work.

In a few moments I will know everything about him. And then we will finally be capable of loving one another.

"I know…I know it's the truth…So please, tell me…"

"Alright."

He took a final deep breath before releasing me and leaning backward onto the bed.

"…It's funny. All this time I was afraid that by doing this I'd die in the process. But I'm not afraid anymore. Maybe we're finally the same person again after all this time. But now – I can just tell you. But you and only you."

"Of course…Because it's the same with me." He and only he was allowed to hear the truth about who I was. And so this reciprocated.

"Where to begin…I suppose I could just start with my name…"

He stopped speaking for a moment. I dared not to interrupt.

Eventually he found his voice again. "My name…Maebara Keiichi. And I am the worst kind of scum on the face of this earth."

More silence. "…Ah, I finally said it. I finally said it, after all this time…"

I reach over and embrace him. I'm unable to see whatever expression he has on his face but certainly it must have been a rather pensive one. Perhaps being unable to see his face would make this whole process easier for him. It seemed that just his name alone had at one point been enough to break him. But all of that was going to change. I decided to let him have his way. After all, he let me have mine. So I didn't break out embrace – I continued to hold him in that same way.

"In 1983 I moved to Hinamizawa. It wasn't any major decision at the time – my parent's just wanted to get away from the city, or more precisely get _me _away from the city. Growing up I had been subject to all kinds of strain, but in the end I really just needed to get away from the world that I hated so much. I found myself wandering into a different world – Hinamizawa was so different, and so I welcomed it at first."

"Was it your decision then? To move, I mean."

"I never voiced the desire, but in the end I guess I really wanted to. But anyhow, I ended up there – and of course you can probably figure out what happened from there. I enrolled at the school and ended up meeting those four. They accepted me so readily I was almost unprepared for it. But really, they were all very important to me. Which makes what I'm about to say make absolutely no sense, but…It's the truth. It's the whole truth."

I nod. As he did for me, I did not interrupt him a single time past that point.

"It didn't take me very long to realize that there was something seriously wrong with the village. I didn't have the slightest idea at first – but Mion was ever insistent that I stop asking about it. Knowing her for the time that I did I was able to tell when she was being entirely serious about something. This was one of those instances. I decided not to act on my suspicions – but then the detective Oishi Kuraudo acted on them for me."

It seemed Oishi had more of a hand in the Hinamizawa incident than I had first believed. I knew he covered it back when it happened, but I was unaware that he knew Keiichi personally like this.

"He began to steer me down the path of suspicion. Eventually I came to the point where I couldn't trust anyone in that village. It was all probably part of some calculated plan of his. But eventually Mion tried to save me from what became that curse – the syndrome. And so she did, and in the process she gave me something to live for."

I could only assume what that meant.

"Mion and I never went public about the relationship that followed. She insisted on it, but at the time I hadn't really taken into account the reasons as for why. But more importantly, even though I had her to rely on, my lack of complete trust in those around me never truly disappeared. But I still continued down my path."

He seemed to darken. His shoulders slumped ever so slightly and just based off of that I could tell he was still having some difficulty detailing all of this. I had a strange feeling that what was about to come next wouldn't be any less depressing.

"Of course along the way I ended up trying to protect someone else who ran the risk of the syndrome – that being Shion. But as I tried to emulate something similar to what Mion was able to do for me, Shion ended up…Taking me for herself, so to speak."

I wasn't entirely sure what the implications of that were. Had the actions of Shion Sonozaki really had such a large impact on what had happened in that village?

"Shion seemed to know that the disaster was coming. She was far too perceptive about Jirou Tomitake and Miyo Takano – it got to the point that the two of us ended up stalking them to the Furude Shrine storehouse to figure out exactly what they were up to. In reality all it did was make me even more perceptive to the lies of the village – but at the time I didn't know that those lies were covering up even more lies."

I shifted my position slightly. I was following along, but it seemed that his story was far more complicated than mine had been.

"Eventually, as I tried to preserve my sanity, I began to distance myself from Mion altogether. I was incredibly suspicious of her as well. I never told her a single thing – I'd broken a village rule with her sister and talking about anything else related to what she was hiding from me wasn't a good idea either. Shion on the other hand was far easier to talk to. Eventually Shion started calling me every day late at night up to the point where she started to visit me out of the blue at two o'clock in the morning."

I had a bad feeling as to where this was headed. But I was almost sure that he was about to get into the heart of the matter.

"Once my parents left for…Well, parts unknown. Let's just put it that way. Once they were out of the house, nothing stopped me from taking Shion for myself. In the aftermath, I never even told Mion. I was too afraid, in all reality, of what would happen. We promised to keep it a secret and tried to go our separate ways at that point. But it didn't work."

I tried to hide my reaction, but he very likely could read my expression from the tension in my arms alone.

"But eventually Shion became obsessed with me – she contracted such a vile form of the curse, and in the end it ended up destroying whatever trace there was of Shion Sonozaki and left behind a shell that depended on me to exist. Eventually things escalated to the point where I was trapped – I had to resolve this as soon as I could, but in the process something terrible would happen. I had finally figured it out. Shion was under the influence of the curse the entire time, and this was the end result. But before I found out we killed Teppei Houjou. I had helped her out of both lust and fear. But in the end we were murderers anyhow. But it came to the point where I needed a way out. Shion eventually went missing – that is, I hid her in my relatively vacant house. I couldn't let her go anywhere, really, and in the end I spent more time trying to keep her hidden than I spent trying to resolve the issue. And so I ended up going to Oishi Kuraudo for help, of all people."

His name again. Perhaps enlisting his assistance wasn't the best idea in the world after all.

"He of course told me I could handle with it the best way possible by trying to dig up as much dirt on the Sonozaki family as possible. If it got to the point where they could be called out as legally liable for pretty much anything, I would be free of all responsibility and both Mion, who would likely be able to have me killed for betraying her with her sister, and Shion, whose unhealthy obsession had turned into insanity, would be legally dealt with. And so I chose to do as he asked and I decided that I would sell them both out for my own sake."

I didn't have a response. But it seemed that Maebara Keiichi and this man in front of me were two very different people.

"But I failed. I failed miserably. Mion eventually discovered everything. She found Shion at some point when I wasn't watching her and everything fell apart from there. Shion went missing and left me to face the fire alone. I had betrayed Mion, and in the end she would have her revenge. I stopped going to our club meetings. I stopped going to school altogether eventually. I had nowhere to run to. And so how did I escape it? How did I make my worthless self worth something? I sold my soul to Irie Kyosuke, who gave me a magical pill that was apparently supposed to fix everything. Of course it wasn't going to do that. But if I stopped taking them, I would supposedly die. Therefore, to preserve my sanity even further I had to do as he told me."

He took a deep breath. I was in some sort of disbelief – I didn't want to think that he had yet to get to the worst of it.

"I lived in fear off of that pill. But it seemed to work. It killed me as a human being, but it kept me from going insane. But I began to wonder if going insane would be much better than being practically vegetative. But whenever I thought like that I kept taking those pills. It went on for weeks, almost to the last day of June. In the end I was dying – but I was eventually saved."

He stopped once again before he continued. "I was saved by Rika Furude. I was able to be human, even just for a short period of time."

I tried my hardest to get the thought out of my head regarding what 'able to be human' meant. My eyes betrayed my expression. I didn't want to know where this was going. I almost for a moment considered stopping him from continuing.

"But eventually I had to face reality. I would die in that village. No matter how long it was put off I would die. Eventually Rika herself went into a daze about fate and cycles and all sorts of things that at the time I couldn't even begin to comprehend but now I understand so clearly. Once Satoko had been moved out of her house I ended up just dwelling there with her. It seemed that she would drink heavily late at night – Bernkastel wine, if I remember correctly. I remember getting drunk with her on more than a few occasions. Lord knows what went on then."

I didn't want to hear any of this. But I needed to. I promised him I would.

"That went on for quite a long while. In the end I suppose that I felt more attracted to the personality that Rika made in her drunken stupor than the girl herself. But I never stopped it ever. I just kept trying to escape from all of the problems I caused. I just kept trying to find ways around it, and Rika was that way. I continued to leech off of Rika for dear life until I couldn't trick myself anymore. I kept on going, for as long as I needed to. I essentially hid with Rika – waiting out our days when we would ultimately die, drinking and doing whatever else to satisfy our remaining desire for life. And then…"

"…And then…" My silence broke.

"The end of June happened. But it was not by the hand of Mion or Shion that I was dealt the last card, so to speak. Rika's house was compromised by Miyo Takano's men. We managed to escape, but it would seem that Rena had turned on us. Or at least it seemed that she was – she was probably already under the influence of the syndrome at that point…But certain things tell me she was well aware of what she was doing. I can't blame anything on her however. In all reality, she had every right to stab me to death."

"S-stab to…death?"

"Of course I ended up surviving. It seemed that there was someone else who cared for me deeply – Rena didn't bring herself to fully kill me despite her sheer desire to live, simply because of how she felt. But in the end she ended up dying as well. I have a feeling she knew, and I have a feeling that she planned for it…She must have been more intertwined with what was going on than I ever knew."

"…But if she was so important, then why didn't she appear in any of your dreams?"

"Simple. She did. She appeared more than once even. I just never knew it was her – not until I remembered everything."

I didn't make another sound, and so he continued.

"And so, I found myself falling into the river. My fight with Rena was more or less one sided. She managed to damage a decent chunk of my organs, although in the end I somehow found myself alive on the side of the riverbank. Everything afterword – I'm sorry. I just can't remember. I doubt I was conscious for most of the time."

"But you were found a great deal of time after the incident. Were you unconscious for that entire time?"

"I might as well have been." He smiles somewhat sadly. "I can't remember a moment of it. That's the reality of it all."

"I see…"

"So, do you hate me?"

"Huh?" I wasn't entirely sure if I had heard him correctly the first time.

"Do you hate me? Knowing who I am?"

"What…? Why would I…?"

"I'm the worst sort of scum on the face of this earth. Shouldn't you hate me? For my cowardice and my avarice?"

"I couldn't possibly do that."

"Why not?" His voice seemed a tad more stern.

"You might have been someone like that once, twelve years ago. But it's different now."

"But what if it _isn't _different now? What if the second I get out of here I just end up going back to the way I was?"

"You won't."

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because I'll be with you the entire way."

He didn't seem to have a response for that. I took the opportunity as it presented itself and I embraced him. I embraced Maebara Keiichi once again, who now seemed a more broken man than he ever could have possibly been before.

He didn't seem to say anything.

"…You told me everything. But I couldn't possibly have understood just how much everything could have been. I'm sorry." I apologized seemingly out of impulse.

"You don't have to apologize for anything. This was my sin. My fault. I let this happen. I destroyed the bonds we had. I shut Rena out and I didn't protect her when she needed it. I made things end the way they did."

"But you can still set yourself free from it, right?"

"I can't do anything on my own any longer. That's why I need you."

"And that's why I'll do whatever you ask."

He sighs. "You're making a mistake."

"I've made more than enough mistakes in my life. I know that this isn't one of them."

He sighs again. "I can't talk you out of it, can I?" He finally returns the embrace.

Maebara Keiichi was a tortured soul – a tortured soul who despised himself for who he was. But this man – the Keiichi here in my arms is an entirely different person.

"I'll do anything you ask. I'll do the things that you can't. I'll be your sword, shield, and your eyes and ears."

"That sounds incredibly contrived."

"I'm afraid I couldn't come up with anything else better to say. Spur of the moment and all."

He seems to chuckle to himself. "Well then…You'll love the plan I've come up with. It'll be the most contrived thing you'll ever hear of."

* * *

><p>"Hello. I'd like to schedule an appointment with Ushiromiya-sama."<p>

"_I'm sorry, but Ushiromiya-sama will not be taking any appointments from this time onward."_

"So she's unavailable to everyone essentially?"

_"Yes. Her health has been declining for quite some time and she will not be taking any future calls."_

"Very well then. Perhaps you could connect me with her secretary, then?"

"_Okonogi-san? That can be arranged."_

"That works out just fine. Shall I save a date?"

"…_It would seem that you may schedule this appointment for any time after June 30__th__."_

"Ah, three months from now? That's a shame. But I suppose it can't be helped."

"_May I take your name and contact number?"_

"I can't give you a name, but I can give you my extension. I'm actually a hospital patient, so I can give you the extension I was assigned."

_"…Very well then, I will take your extension."_

"K One Zero Six One Nine Eight Three Three Zero."

"…_I'm sorry, but repeat that again?"_

"K One Zero Six One Nine Eight Three Three Zero."

"…_It would seem that we have a few more open slots than I had accounted for. You can actually reschedule your appointment now. Do you have a preference date?"_

"How about tomorrow at noon?"

"_It will be done. We will see you tomorrow."_

"Thanks."

I hang up the phone. It was set. I would have a small meeting tomorrow with Okonogi, primarily so my half of the work going into this plan would be well underway. More importantly, I would finally leave this room for the first time since I was revived. It would be difficult to adjust, and I was certain that Natsumi would be scared half to death before I called her upon my arrival at the Ushiromiya complex, but it was all worth it.

With this meeting I had to accomplish two things. First off, I had to bring Okonogi to his knee with the information that Anne had given me. Apparently he had eavesdropped on a conversation that took place over one of the facilities private lines and was now willing to assist me in whatever way he could. So, it was established that he would accompany me to the complex with the recording of said phone call in tow. With Anne on my side there was little that could go wrong in this respect.

Second of all, I needed to assemble a small army. Because I knew without a doubt that the so called opposition that had invaded Hinamizawa was composed of a mixture of people, both from the village itself and from the outside town. All of the people involved were loyal to Oyashiro – but in this sense they were also being loyal to the whims of their so called curse.

The Oyashiro curse, regardless of how legitimate it really is, would doubtlessly cause the opposing force to be rabid in nature. And with this rabid nature came a lack of order but also a lack of fear. Without fear they would essentially sacrifice themselves for the sake of killing another human being. So I decided that the only way to counter a reasonably large group of people would be to take advantage of the lack of order and establish a group that could maintain order. Okonogi was obviously essential to this task.

The Ushiromiya complex was oddly enough fairly close by, according to Anne, and so the trip to the building wouldn't be all that difficult. It would be difficult for me in a larger sense. I could probably function properly in an external environment but in the end everything would be up to chance. I was a tad nervous in that sense, but I was honestly more concerned about the fact that I had sent Natsumi off to stare certain doom in the face. Being in that village was certainly worse than anything I could face out here. And so I managed to stomach my fears.

The following day Anne arrived with a wheelchair. I decided that it would certainly be for the best if I were to take a wheelchair to the outside world, given how I doubted my extremely limited walking ability was up to par with anything but a completely flat surface.

"I suppose you're finally ready?" He asks me. All I do is nod my head.

Anne wheels me out of the room and down the long, white hallway. We reach the elevator in due time and upon reaching the top floor I suddenly feel slightly dizzy. It was likely because of the elevator, but in the end it didn't seem all that detrimental to my health.

Anne wheeled me to the front door. The extremely intense light outside was likely the sun. I was already squinting my eyes despite not even having made it out the door yet.

Anne opens the door and I move outside for the first time since my confinement.

And the first thing I hear are those damned cicadas.

I laugh. I laugh like I've never laughed before.

And then I simply take in everything around me. It's all such a familiar feeling, but the feeling is so very distant. I feel distant from this world above the ground – this world that unlike the one below was filled with nothing but chaos and discord.

This world was the world that killed me. This world was the one that I never wanted to return to. But this was the world that I had come back to, because I had to make things right in it.

That was my only reason. That was my only reason to go back.

The Ushiromiya complex was only a few miles away, and so we ended up taking a car on the way there. Anne had prepared a car with handicapped accessibility, although I technically wasn't handicapped. The ride was no more than ten minutes, and without having really been outside for all that long I was once again ushered back into another building. This one was significantly better built than the shabby upper level of the hospital, although I had a feeling that the lower levels wouldn't be as proficiently designed as the hospital's. Anne ended up dealing with the bulk of the paperwork, and before I knew it we were in an elevator heading up to the floor that Okonogi resided on.

Once the door opened I saw him, standing at the other end of the large and rather luxurious looking room, staring out his ceiling-to-floor windows. He turns to greet us, although his expression is less than pleasant. Anne continues to wheel me up to the somewhat large table situated in the middle of the room.

I recognize him instantly. He was there twelve years ago. He was in Hinamizawa, and he likely killed many of the people important to me. He was one of them – the Yamainu, the operatives that the Miyo Takano had hired to kill everyone in the village.

And so I decide right then and there that my revenge against this man would be particularly sweet.

"Welcome." He speaks rather curtly.

"Is that all you have to say to us?" Anne throws in a strangely uncharacteristic snide remark. But then again I knew that he was apparently a lunatic in his own right, so I assume that his more professional demeanor was reserved for me.

"I don't have any pleasantries to spend on the two of you. Considering who you both are and what you're likely here for."

"So you have some idea?" I decide to control the conversation from here on out.

"The extension you scheduled this appointment with – you're the one? You're their pet project?"

"Pet project? I might have been an experiment at one point, but I just so happen to be acting out on my own right now. Just as you seem to be."

"Excuse me? Acting out on my own with regards to what?"

"With regards to this pretty little audio recording we've got here." Anne waves the tape around before placing it on the table before it.

His stern expression flashed confusion for a slight moment.

"But before we get to that I have a few questions… Most of which pertain to a certain village that you and your band of misfit trained killers had your fill of twelve years ago."

"Speak. I'll give you your answers." He didn't even try to question what village I was talking about. It seemed that the contents of the recording were accurate indeed.

"Twelve years ago you were hired out to kill every resident of Hinamizawa. Did you have any idea as to why?"

"That woman paid us to do a job. We did not ask questions and did as we were told. That is all there was to it."

"So you massacred the village because you were told to?"

"Indeed. That was my involvement in Hinamizawa. There is nothing more I could possibly tell you."

"Then why are you suddenly so interested in it?"

"Hm?" Was he still trying to play dumb? He knows we have a recording.

"You've been busy the last few months – mainly because of the recent string of events that went on in that village. But more importantly, you've been busy because there's money to be made."

"What are you implying…?" His eyes dart to the recording.

"Are you aware that your friend Kuraudo's phone was rigged to record every single call ever made on it? Including that call you made a few days ago before he vanished entirely?"

His eyes betray his expression. He quickly shuts them and sighs.

"And what are you implying about that phone call?"

"That you're planning to steal a ton of money from the Tokyo company – or more specifically from the government."

"And how does any of that matter to me? I haven't stolen anything yet. I can simply deny everything mentioned in that call." Despite his attempt to argue back, his eyes remained shut and his composure was still gradually falling apart. He must have known what else was on that tape.

"Because of a certain _other _plot you allude to. One that involves taking control of your current executive's company and murdering her niece. And I doubt you can just write that one off. Not unless you want to lose your job."

He sighs again before his eyes open. His eyes are weak – he is cornered, and his expression shows it.

"What are your demands?"

"I want the money that you will receive from your plan with Oishi. You certainly must have enough on hand."

"Hah. And am I to benefit from this in any way?"

"I will keep the contents of this tape a secret. You will still be able to carry out your plan to usurp your executive. I will not stop that in any way."

"Very well. The total is twelve million yen."

"No, it isn't."

"…Yes, it is."

"No. It isn't." Anne chimes in.

And with that, he breaks. "…Very well, the total is thirty two million yen. Is that satisfactory?" He writes a check and hands it to me. I hand it to Anne.

"You can leave me now. Go deposit this in the account we discussed."

"Alright. I'll be back within the hour." Anne rises and leaves. As he does so, he has a small laughing fit. I can't help but smile at his enthusiasm.

"Will that be all?" He asks in a rather mocking tone.

"Just for that, I'm going to take a bit more from you."

"Will it be more money?"

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Then what? What could you possibly want aside from money?"

"The Yamainu. I will become the leader of the Yamainu."

He laughs. "Preposterous. Do you have any idea how those men work? They will obey me and only me."

"But what if by obeying me for a short while they gained the freedom they certainly desire?"

He looks at me with a look of disbelief.

"After the Yamainu complete my first and only assignment for them, they will be paid accordingly. With the money that you would receive from Oishi, no less. But then I will set them free. I will appoint two men to manage the company and I will relinquish the gloves from there. The Yamainu will then make their own marks and kill when they decide to and however they decide to. They will be operated by fellow members and they won't be as restricted as they were under you."

"What makes you so sure they will so readily betray me?"

"Men desire freedom. They are men. Therefore they will accept my proposal."

"This will never work."

"We will see. I doubt your men enjoy spending their days behind an office desk."

He slams his fist on the table.

"Is that all? Do you wish to take anything else from me?"

"Your life would be nice. Unfortunately I believe you should be allowed to live with your shame."

"You bastard…"

In that moment he tries to reach across the table and strangle me. But I train my concealed pistol on him before he can get close enough.

"Another move and you won't be able to get _anything _out of this exchange of ours. And for the record I can hold this gun like this all day long. And I'm sure I don't need to demonstrate how it's actually loaded."

He retreats.

"Damn you…You bastard."

"You see, you're the bastard here. I'm just taking revenge for the things you did back then."

"And that involves embezzling more money from me than I've embezzled from others?"

"Of course it does. Money is power. And I'm willing to give up that power to set things right. I just needed someone to get the power from."

Eventually Anne returns to the room.

"It's finished. I _did_ get a few suspicious looks but it all checked out."

"Good. We can leave now."

Anne grabbed the wheelchair again and we left promptly.

"Have a nice rest of your day, Okonogi-san."

With that we were gone. But this was only the beginning of what I had to accomplish.

* * *

><p>The next phase of the plan…<p>

The part of the plan where I can finally tie up all of the loose ends. The phase of the plan that I would carry out on my own without any assistance. This was the part of the plan where my past would finally catch up to me.

Okonogi had been dealt with.

But there was one other person – one other person who still had to pay for their crimes.

Organizing a meeting with this person was very simple. She was no longer the sort of person she had been. She had gotten away with the worst crime of all, yet she despite having been able to survive past the June of 1983 she was even worse off than she was before.

I didn't know her history all that well. She had grown up in a terrible environment, and had nearly died in the process of doing so. She had survived, but in the end she was scarred beyond belief and came to rely on the memory of her so called grandfather for support. It was through this that the woman known as Miyo Takano came to be.

And it would be today that she would answer for the crimes she committed.

We had arranged to meet in an abandoned school building, which was situated across from the new one. A sewage line ran under the school and was rather apparent in the old building, so the average person would likely stay away from it for a good while. Due to this it was easy to meet there, even though the investigation of a missing student had only just resolved.

I was doing this for two reasons. One was to get back at this woman for what she had done. But the other was to learn the truth – the truth of the syndrome, and why Satoshi and Shion could fight the way that they could. There had to be something to all of this – and Takano would be the one to know.

We ended up meeting on the second floor of the building. The building was as run down as could be and it took some work to find a section that was wheelchair accessible, but it wasn't all that difficult to make it to the second floor.

I entered the class room and in the far corner I saw her staring out of the window and at the setting sun.

She turns to look at me, and in that moment I know for a fact that it was Miyo Takano. She was far older looking than she had once been, but she was doubtlessly the same woman who had murdered my closest friends, many of which right before my eyes.

She didn't seem to recognize me by sight. I wouldn't be surprised, in all honesty. I looked so drastically different, but I was at least still in the same body I had twelve years ago. I wheel myself closer to her and she seems all the more defensive.

It's as if she's afraid that a very fragile wall around her is going to shatter if I got to close. She was feeble and weak. This was not the Miyo Takano I knew. But it was the Miyo Takano that existed here and now.

"You came. I almost thought this was all some cruel joke." She opens rather feebly.

"If I told you as much as I knew over the phone you couldn't have come to that conclusion."

"I guess you're right. I was hoping it was, though."

She doesn't make any sort of sound past that. So I decide to begin.

"Miyo Takano. I never thought I would ever be able to see you again. In fact, I never wanted to see you again."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I'm afraid I don't even know who you are."

"So you really can't recognize me. It's funny. Considering how the only real memory I have of you is shooting Satoko in the face."

"Houjou…I remember her. She was a rather vibrant girl. But I don't know anything else…Did I really…?"

I disregard her questioning tone and continue. "She was a patient who had the syndrome, right? And you studied her, right? And you did nothing to stop her, yet I see the syndrome resolving itself time and time again, don't I?"

"The syndrome itself…was just a name I gave to a severe case of paranoia."

"Paranoia? Am I expected to believe that? I've found cases where the syndrome makes one nearly superhuman."

"Severe adrenaline rush, you mean? That… can be caused by paranoia."

"I severely doubt that. Start telling me the truth."

"So that's why you called me here? To learn about the truth behind that syndrome?"

"Yes. Why else would I want to deal with a vile woman like yourself?"

"Stop…" Her face falls. "I don't want to remember. I don't want to remember what I did back then… I can't even remember half of the things I did in that lab. All I know was that…The syndrome was my discovery."

"Why? Because it all amounted to nothing?"

"Yes…" Her voice is somewhat distressed. "I don't know. I don't know what I thought I could have done. It's a mystery, even to me."

"So the only person with all the answers doesn't _have_ the answers? Because she just _forgot_ them?"

"Please, I'll tell you what you want to know as best as I can…Just don't make me remember those things."

I suddenly came to a realization.

Takano had self imposed amnesia. She forced herself to forget the more traumatizing events of what had happened. Was it a syndrome of her own? Was that even possible? I decide that it is – after all, people with no connection to the Hinamizawa Disaster have shown signs of the syndrome, even though some are far more drastic and far more supernatural than others.

"You really did forget, did you?"

She nods her head.

"Then I'm going to make you remember."

"No, I told you…Don't…"

"In 1983 you slaughtered a village of innocent people. You paid a private military company to do the job for you. You did it because you wanted to avenge your grandfather. But you couldn't. So you took your anger out on the people of the village."

"…No, I…I didn't do those things…" She begins to shake slightly.

"You slaughtered innocent people. You executed children without a single sign of remorse. You killed them, but worst of all you had one of them kill her best friends just so her family would be unharmed. And then you killed her too."

"No…No, I didn't."

I'm a bit tired of this bull crap. I'm not taking any of this from this woman who keeps denying her past.

I forgot everything myself. But I remembered. And I am going to live with what I did. But this woman – the one who caused all of it to happen – she won't even acknowledge it.

I grab her throat.

"Yes. You did. You killed them. You killed innocent people to satiate your own desire for revenge. You took children from their homes. You killed them with your own hands. And how I can know all of this…? I'm the one that got away."

She tries to rip my arm off of her, but she doesn't have the strength to. She continues to flail her arms about as I continue to choke her to death.

"You don't remember me? How about if I paint a picture for you? A reasonably young boy with brown hair. He was the only guy who hung around a group of girls. He got a bit curious and you tried to steer him down the path that would lead him right into your hands."

I tighten my grip. Her eyes widen, but I wasn't sure if that was from the lack of air or a sudden realization.

"But most importantly, he was a coward. He was a worthless coward who never wanted to atone for his mistakes. He kept living in the moment, and by the time he realized what he had done it was too late."

She tries to make a sound but as my anger heightens she finds it even harder to breathe.

"_He _was the only one who should've died. But he was the only one who lived…!"

Eventually I release her before grabbing her by the collar. Using the wheelchair as a crutch I lean backward and with my one arm I manage to drag her off her feet and send her face first into the floor.

She eventually tries to sit up, but I swing my arm and punch her square in the face. She staggers backward again before crawling a few feet away from me.

"Do you remember now? Do you remember the vile woman you were?"

"…Kei…Keiichi…"

"That's right. That's who that boy was. And now he's back. Because he needs to know the truth. And he needs to offer retribution for his mistakes and everyone else's mistakes. That includes yours."

"Keiichi…I'm…"

"Are you going to try to apologize? Even now? Do you have any shame? I will never apologize for what I've done simply because I can't make amends with the dead. But you…Do you really think that atoning for what you've done is even possible?"

"Then just kill me!" She screams. "Just kill me and be done with it…or I'll…!"

I realize she was planning on scratching her throat out, or something to that effect. I move towards her as fast as I could and I managed to pin her arms to the ground at the cost of falling out of the wheelchair and on to her.

"Speak. Tell me everything. Then I will decide if you should live or die." I sneer at her.

"…Fine... I'll tell you...What I can remember."

I move off of her and onto the floor next to her. She makes no attempt to scratch out her throat and I assume that she now has the memories she can divulge to me.

"The syndrome…I did research on it for years, but in the end it was never anything special…Well, it was special in the sense that it was a rare disease and could have various effects on people, but outside the common effect of amplifying a person's darkest fears and making them reality in their eyes, I didn't know about things such as intense adrenaline rush or nearly inhuman capabilities."

"So then what are they? What are those strange qualities that have come up?"

"I don't know. I never knew, and I don't know now. But it must have something to do with that village."

"And what does that mean?"

"Perhaps there was some legitimacy to what the villagers spoke of after all."

"You mean the demonic past of the village?"

"Exactly… I'm not saying there were demons, but in all likelihood there is something inhuman at work there – it's the simplest solution, and the simplest solution tends to be the correct one. By that logic then there has to be something at work here. Something that created these traits in these individuals. Or perhaps it is, in a more complicated sense, dormant potential in each individual. Perhaps they were always capable of those things and just couldn't bring themselves to do them in a normal psychological state."

"So you're saying that both things are equally possible?"

"Aren't they? Both are possible outcomes. One just happens to be more rational than the other. But that irrational reason seems to be the most realistic answer."

"But the question is which is truly the reality of the situation."

"That's what I've determined. We simply don't know. But if we did, then it would be possible to handle people with that type of syndrome accordingly."

"So then there's a differentiation between the two?"

"I called the inhuman syndrome concept the Devil Theory. That was the name I came up for it. It really isn't remotely similar to the syndrome in any sort of way, but isolating these events to Hinamizawa in the same class as the syndrome makes a bit more sense. Despite how they were classified the only person who ever had one prior to now ended up dying during his treatment. So the truth still isn't very clear."

"So then the Devil Theory needs to be proven true or false to figure out how to stop the people that have it?"

"Precisely."

"So it's a crapshoot, all hinging on Ockham's Razor. Except here the simplest explanation is the supernatural one. And so we need to determine if there is anything we can do about it or not."

"That's the nature of it. Devil Theory syndromes were just theories in themselves back when I came up with the name. The first Devil Theory victim displayed symptoms that could potentially be explained by some other sort of condition that I never determined was afflicting him. So while the average syndrome may be able to resolve itself these might not fall apart as readily. Or at all."

"Because the only patient who ever potentially expressed the syndrome died while he still had it?"

"Precisely."

It was the difference between Natsumi's syndrome and Satoshi's syndrome. Natsumi's was the standard type – and the type that could fall apart more readily. But Satoshi's Devil Theory syndrome, which is similar to Shion's Devil Theory syndrome, might not fall apart as readily. It might not even be possible. But we had to figure out if it was or not, and the only way to do that would be to observe Satoshi and Mion firsthand.

I was devising a plan to do it. But I needed Natsumi to do it. And it certainly would not be easy.

I sigh. "That's far too complicated."

"That's the nature of it."

I sigh again. That answer was satisfactory enough. But I still had one final question.

"So then what was the syndrome to begin with? Was it really a curse?"

"No." She answers rather quickly. "The syndrome was simply a psychological phenomenon. A phenomenon caused by people who feared their self imposed progenitor but feared each other the most. Because ultimately it was humans that caused pain and suffering to humans. Not gods or demons."

"It's as I thought."

I then attempt to work myself off of the floor and into the wheelchair. I manage to stand with some difficulty but I manage to make it back into the chair without too much difficulty.

"That's everything."

"Is it really? You don't want to say anything else to me?"

"No. You can decide what to do with yourself from here."

Her gaze was distant. She was too concerned with what she was going to say but she was even more concerned about what would happen if she didn't say anything.

"But you must know…I haven't known what to do with myself for twelve years."

"Then decide. You have the remainder of a life to live. Being able to live that life is punishment enough for your crimes."

"…Then will I be free?"

"If you do what?"

"If I die?"

"If you died the way you are now, you'd certainly rot in the deepest part of hell. You have to live. You have to live and do something that is worth the lives of all of those that you killed."

"But how?" She starts to shout again. "How can I possibly do something like that?"

"You have twice the time left to finish living than the children you killed even had the chance to start living. So go on living. Go on living and offer retribution for what you've done. Do that and perhaps your eternity in hell won't be so terrifying."

With that tidbit of prophetic insight, I leave the classroom. I never so much as look back at that woman, only because I know all that I will see there will be something akin to myself – a person who was lost and confused only because they were to afraid to go beyond their own limits.

I despise myself for a reason. That woman is a living testament to that reason. And so I never want to see her face ever again.

Outside in the twilit spring evening, I continue along my path. I had scheduled a car to pick me up at the nearest bus stop. And as I worked my way over to that bus stop I had time to think.

Or more importantly, time to remember the last time I saw a twilit sky like this one. And as the cicadas cry I relive a terrifying moment in my life. By the time I make it to bus stop my face is stricken with tears.

I am cursed to these visions of my past. I am cursed to understand the sad hymns of the cicadas.

But I do not despise them. I do not despise anyone or anything but myself.

I deserve this. And so I accept the weight of my sins.

* * *

><p>Hinamizawa. I had finally returned to that village. I had such a limited memory of this place but with certainty it was the place I had once grown up in. It was entirely different from what I had remembered, but it was Hinamizawa none the less. My home had become little but an ashen ruin, but it was still my home. I had to respect it for what it was.<p>

And I had just the method of doing that. But first things first. The plan – the plan to redeem everyone who had died here in 1983, and to redeem the Maebara Keiichi who had died here as well and give the new Maebara Keiichi a chance to atone for his sins. The plan that I was about to execute, more or less all on my own.

I had been a part of The People and a part of the surviving remnant of the village for the longest time. While it had been Oishi Kuraudo who had given me my false identity, it was Nagi who gave me a place to live. But eventually I had followed Oishi's shadow around enough that with the help of an old friend of mine I worked my way into the heart of the investigation committee that Saturn Anne had pieced together to investigate the lasting damages the village had caused – but more importantly to investigate his End Dreamer, who was now my superior officer, as it was.

The truth about The People is rather simple. While there are supposed to be higher ups and government officials involved in the process, only one of those things is true. The government funded Dr. Anne's experiments and the authorities were told to cooperate with him. But in the end Anne runs the show – he's the leader of the entire organization, but he pretends not to be. I can't even fathom exactly how he managed to, but he controls everything – he controls the scientists, he controls the police, and he controls the government's view on the entire matter. He holds the funding. He has the contacts. He's become mad with power. Not to say he wasn't mad in the first place.

As it is now, I'm acting on my own as the only extension to the outside world that Keiichi has. As it is now I'm willing to go to any length to do as he wishes – that is the extent of our love. And so I am here, hiding amongst these people, waiting for the proper moment to present itself.

I didn't know exactly how we managed to find him, but we had managed to stumble upon another survivor from that time – Satoshi Houjou, a man who was far more central to the incident than he ever needed to be. While he was in a coma for a very long time, he ended up surviving due to some sort of divine intervention and he managed to come this far. In the end I managed to convince him to travel to the village – and with good reason, as given what had happened to him upon his own return visit to Hinamizawa, his presence for the final act was crucial.

We knew at this point that a Sonozaki sibling was still alive and that whichever one had lived was on a violent rampage. Keiichi told me it would be for the best if she were to be put out of her misery. And so it was decided that Satoshi would fulfill that role. But we both had our skepticism about having him go back in and fight to the death with her – after all, we assumed that his personal feelings would get in the way. Therefore we needed to create a control environment.

Satoshi would once again engage in battle with the Sonozaki sibling. He would be placed into a situation where he would essentially fail to defeat her. And in that moment, we would intervene.

I had accumulated four cell phones – cellular devices that were relatively hard to come by, but still highly useful in their nature. I would plant one of these on Satoshi. And in the event where he would fail, I would place him in contact with Keiichi. Satoshi would have the resolve – if he were put into a scenario where it was clear that she could no longer be saved, intervention would likely win him over.

Of course things got a tad out of hand – when that girl appeared – the one known as Saya. The girl that only those who had experienced the fourth level of the Hinamizawa Syndrome could have perceived.

That girl was akin to one that Keiichi had described himself. Apparently he had experienced her firsthand in a past dream, but unlike him I had yet to perceive one like her. But the moment I saw her I knew. I was just concerned that Nagi and Satoshi had yet to figure things out themselves. I would assume that Nagi, being as wise as he is, would have everything worked out before too long.

Amongst us there were only two initially who had experienced such a severe level of the Syndrome – myself and Nagi, who had suppressed his syndrome along with his ability to smell. But then there were the other two – Yoko Narukami and then Satoshi. At that point, I understood what she was. And as a result I had to relay the information to Keiichi.

He then decided that we could use her to our advantage. With moles on both the inside and outside, there would be a greater chance of success. And so I told her what I wanted her to do. She seemed to believe me with a degree of certainty.

Keiichi began to tell me about all sorts of things – possibilities, fact and fiction, a race of demons that can alternate reality to their own liking – all sorts of things. But in the end such things may or may not exist, just as he said. That was apparently their singular weakness – they could create both rational and irrational causes, but the effects must be identical. Therefore, if the rational effect is altered into something different from the intended irrational effect, there is no power to be had.

The girl, supposedly, was different. She could take rational and irrational effects and modify them directly – simply because she couldn't exist on the rational side of the spectrum and so had no perception of causes – only effects. She was more or less something that existed outside of the causality of the universe – something that we had attributed to something like God in the past.

But in the event that she was to exist in an external environment, she simply wouldn't – that was her weakness. External stimuli or external recognition of such a thing would essentially make her powerless. If the rationale of reality, which made irrational possibilities impossible, were to come into direct contact with something that simply could not co-exist with it, then the irrational possibility would be destroyed. She was safe in the sense that she could only be viewed by those who had been under the influence of the syndrome, but in the event that someone in an exterior environment were to observe that she was in fact not there, she would simply stop existing. That was the risk.

I didn't understand the reason. But Keiichi told me that if he could determine which possibility was the true one, dealing with the so called inhuman syndrome would be far more simplistic. In the end I would not fully understand until I witnessed firsthand what Keiichi was talking about.

In the end, he mostly dealt with the matters regarding the girl himself. I had the much more important task of re-taking the Sonozaki Estate.

Having gathered up as much firepower as I possibly could I decided that it would be best if I took things one step at a time. I managed to slip the coat with the phone onto that girl without causing too much trouble, and I managed to go back and forth between my supposed duties and my real duties with ease. But once the fighting began I simply had to rely on the Yamainu to do their job and hopefully make it out unscathed.

The actual process of taking the Sonozaki estate was relatively simple. In the end all I really needed to do was trick the opposition into attacking a single one of our groups and the rest ended up being fairly simplistic. While Satoshi had given the initial commands, at the point where his orders ceased I more or less led the unit to the estate. The estate was unguarded – clearly these men knew no sense of tactics or any sense at all. It all did work in my favor, and for that I am fortunate.

With the estate under our control I called in the Yamainu. They were all men of their word. They did as Keiichi commanded, down to the last detail. And the remaining opposition fell to their weaponry very quickly. We had taken the village, although those that would eventually populate it once the damage was repaired would be few and far between. In the end only four of them had made it. And with only four people there would be no Hinamizawa to restore.

But Nagi's vision remained strong regardless. He still desired a Hinamizawa where people from all over could live with essentially no fear of a curse or any stigma holding them down. He was far too optimistic. After all, there was a reason that Hinamizawa became a shadow of a village, and that reason would with all certainty apply to the new Hinamizawa.

It was almost over – but first and foremost I had to monitor Satoshi's progress.

Keiichi had grand plans for him – only because he managed to realize that he was the key to stopping the rampaging Shion Sonozaki – who at this point was so enveloped by the syndrome that she was suffering from a rather deadly identity crisis. Satoshi's progress would be monitored, and over the period of time that he was monitored I would constantly be feeding Keiichi information. In the end I pursued Satoshi from the moment I was relieved of my duties at the estate. I watched the battle that unfolded and the trail of corpses that led me straight down his pathway. His consistent slaughter was almost too well coordinated – while a single man had caused the bulk of this carnage, it had the organization and overall damage of a small army.

I then realized exactly what was going on here. And it seemed that Keiichi had as well.

* * *

><p>The rain continued to pour down as I stalked my way along the road that would doubtlessly lead me to Shion. I had managed to scale a pretty steep incline fairly nicely given my condition, but I couldn't spend what little energy I had left quite just yet. I ended up following the sounds of death – it would seem that our reinforcement had arrived but it also seemed that she had started picking them off. I found myself wandering along the trail of corpses that she left behind.<p>

My mind wanders.

She was killing because she needed to kill. She needed to live and the only way she could do that was because she needed to kill.

K-One had told me everything about her – how both she and her sister had been betrayed and how they had lost everything all so suddenly and without any sort of warning. He told me everything he could have told me. In the end I realized that her insanity had been caused by one thing and one thing alone.

It was me. She went insane because she couldn't be with me.

I adored Shion for who she was – for Miyumi, who I doubtlessly believed was the girl behind the deranged lunatic. I knew Shion without even knowing who she really was, yet I still fell in love with her. Things aren't any different. It's just now I'm saving her as Satoshi Houjou. Fundamentally, it's all the same as it ever was.

I see her standing out on the horizon, standing over the horribly disfigured body of _someone_. At this point I can't even tell what gender the person is. She is standing atop a hill of sorts – a hill that overlooks the entire village. It would seem that the battle was nearly over, but I had no idea which side would ultimately emerge victorious. At this point I didn't care – while Rai's sister is seemingly missing from the village entirely, I still had one order of business to resolve. And this time I had a plan – hopefully the only way I could possibly walk away from this the victor.

She turns towards me, having heard my arrival. Her face is as consistent as ever. She doesn't show the slightest amount of surprise as I draw closer.

"Surprised?"

"Not at all. I even got your sword for you." She tosses me my bloodied katana.

"You have to at least be surprised your suicide drug didn't work."

"Not at all. There's a greater chance for failure than a chance for success. That was why the fifty foot drop was supposed to seal the deal. But it didn't. I knew it didn't. Because no matter how hard I try I just can't kill you."

I suddenly thought back to that rational and irrational cause and effect thing K-One brought up. Maybe I wasn't supposed to die? Was that the plan? Or was I just alive because I was the one who had to kill Mion?

But I suddenly realized something. Believing in that sort of thing isn't a very sound way of thinking.

Rational and irrational causes and effects – it's essentially saying that fate is absolute and there is no way around it, except it's hiding behind supernatural and natural laws. All it amounts to is the same thing either way.

Aren't I supposed to be fighting against fate? Aren't I supposed to be fighting against the odds to prove there's no such thing as fate?

So shouldn't I try to stop her without killing her?

But was that even possible now?

I have one chance. I can make that decision when the time comes.

"So are we going to finish this up or what?"

"I suppose we might as well. Things are about finished here anyway."

"How so?"

"Irie's probably dead right about now. More importantly, I doubt the pack of uncoordinated lunatics that invaded this village can manage a small group of trained professionals, even with all of that firepower."

"Tell me something." I try to keep the talking going. The less fighting we do the better. "Who are they? What were they doing here in the first place?"

"I wish I could say for sure, but in all likelihood they were crazed worshipers of Oyashiro-sama spread across the nation. None of them were from Hinamizawa. That much I can tell."

"But how did such a false god spread."

She laughs slightly. "I have no clue. Why don't you ask Oyashiro-sama yourself when you meet her?"

"_Her_? Oyashiro's a woman now?"

"I think you're smart enough to figure it out on your own. But more importantly…" She readies her katana.

"We have a fight to finish."

I sigh. "There's no stopping you, is there?"

"I told you. I kill, so I know I'm alive. I kill, therefore I am."

She makes the opening swing and nearly manages to get me right then and there. I back away and watch her carefully. Her movement is still sluggish. She hasn't had any ample time to recover, and as much of a demon as she may be, she is still a human being. At the rate things seem to be going, she won't last another hour.

But I don't have an hour. I have to do this now. Before it's too late.

I go for another swing, as if I'm using a baseball bat. I don't have any sort of idea why I won't hold a more practical stance, but in the end she is still trying to swing that sword with one arm.

My grip slips and the wet steel in my grasp falls to the side. Apparently that one swing was too powerful and my sword stumbles. Shion flashes a wicked grin and goes in for the kill. But I grab the sword before she's able to swing it. I more or less had to move straight towards her to prevent her from getting off the swing. In any normal situation, she wouldn't have waited so long to attack. But she was growing weaker. I was almost dead, but I could still think clearly.

"Stop this."

"What, did you hit your head on a rock and get soft on me?" She tries to struggle.

"Why are you so dead set on killing people?"

"I kill to live. How many more times do I have to say it before your tiny brain will figure it out?"

"Why? There's no reason for you to kill anyone! You can live regardless of any of that!"

"Do you even know what you're saying?"

"You don't have to kill anyone. There are other ways you can live. You don't have to protect yourself from being hurt anymore – just stop, just stop and let it go!"

She screams before forcing me away. I fall over and she takes the moment to drive her katana into me. However, she settles for my good shoulder. I manage to stomach the pain for the time being, but once she rips it out I know I won't be able to tolerate the pain.

"Let it go? Do you have _any_ idea how stupid you sound?"

"I know everything. You can't keep trying to get back at the world for something that happened twelve years ago!"

"You can't have any idea. You were fast asleep the whole time – you don't know a god damn thing!"

"He betrayed you, right? Keiichi? He betrayed you and you tried to kill him, didn't you? He betrayed you for your sister, right? You wanted to kill him, didn't you?"

She screams and pulls out the blade.

I manage to suppress a scream and I keep on talking. "Guess what – he's dead. He's dead and he's never coming back. Whatever animosity you had towards him means jack shit now!"

She sends the blade back into the same place.

"For fuck's sake, can't you just accept that? He's dead, and he'll spend the rest of god knows however the fuck long making up for everything! You didn't get to kill him, but you can't just take out your anger on everyone around you!"

"It wasn't just Keiichi. It was never just him – it was everyone. Everyone who ever looked down on me – everyone who ever turned against me… My own parents, my grandmother, my sister, my friends – everyone in this village betrayed me and I'll keep on killing until ten times that blood is spilt!"

"Get a fucking hold of yourself!" I scream at her. My terrifying face apparently got through to her for a moment. "This isn't how you should spend the life you won back. You survived because of a miracle. And this is how you plan to waste that miracle?"

"…Miracles, eh?" Her eyes grow distant. Her rage seems to subside. "Rika-chan talked a whole lot about miracles. They never amount to anything. They're just some false hope people who are afraid of dying use to put themselves to sleep at night. And just as pointless is the desire for anything short of death. No matter how hard you try you still die in the end. But I don't want to die. I can't die. Not after what they all did to me. I have to keep breaking that cycle. That is what I have to do. That's why I'll keep spilling blood – so no one can spill mine."

"You don't have to resort to murder. You can keep trying to protect yourself this way – you have to let it go. You have to stop before you lose yourself completely. You'll turn into something that can't even remember its own name – although you already can't even manage that."

"You make so little sense I'm thinking of cutting your last words right here."

"You can't try to play dumb with me. Or with yourself for that matter. You know who you are. I don't even have to tell you. Mion Sonozaki is dead. No matter how hard you try to change that she's the one who died twelve years ago. You didn't. You're still alive. You don't have to hide behind the shell of a dead woman to live."

She pulls the sword out of my shoulder once again. She hesitates. But then she plunges it right back in. And again. And again. But I won't make a move against her. I won't do that. Not when I'm so close.

She stops eventually, resting her head against her hands.

"Mion died because of Keiichi. You lived because you were supposed to. But you can't bring yourself to rely on anything but yourself now, can you? It's because everything and everyone turned against you, right?"

She does not respond.

"I've got news for you. I'm right here. And I'm not going anywhere. If I were the same as everyone else, then why would you still be able to hack away at me? Can't you see that you don't have to kill to live? Can't you just let it go?"

She does not respond.

"If you can't let it go, then I'll _make _you let it go. Everyone dies sometime, right? Then why would you ever want to die like this? Or is your perception of everything around you so horrendously warped now? Can you even remember who I am?"

She lifts the sword again. She lets out a hoarse cry before she tries to bring the blade down on me. It was working. But the anger and hate of Mion Sonozaki was so strong that she would not stop at anything – even her own body revolting against her. But she drops the katana and clenches her head in pain, and in that moment I take hold of it.

_I can't save you any other way. But this is not fate. This is because of what someone else did to you. This was set in stone. No person could have stopped this. Twelve years of pain can't be overcome. It isn't possible. _

_This is the only way you can be saved._

I drive the katana through her stomach. She falls over to the side of me. I make no attempt to move, knowing that this long battle was finally over. Blood slowly begins to seep out onto the wet dirt – the final confirmation that she was down and wouldn't be getting up.

Her eyes open. Her face is drenched by the rain and smeared with her own blood but I can clearly see that no insanity lies in her gaze.

Doubtlessly Mion Sonozaki was no more.

This woman, with hollow eyes and a vacant expression was Shion Sonozaki.

I had finally seen her with my own eyes.

I remembered everything – everything I had ever known about her.

This was without a doubt Shion Sonozaki.

She speaks. "Looks like you got me…"

"It was close. Unfortunately for you I seem to be immortal."

She almost smiles, but it seems that she lacks the energy for even that. But she continues to speak. "…Mion died, because of what I did. I lost everything, so I decided I would take from her too. I tricked him…Kei-chan. I tricked him. I made him believe I was sick. I made him believe I was crazy. I made him take me, and I didn't care about what happened to Mion. And then we…killed people. Because deep down I really was crazy. Because people had wronged me and I wouldn't sit by and let them get away with it. Because I lost the person most important to me."

She laughs. It is a sad laugh, and a rather weak laugh.

"It's funny. It was all so stupid. But Dr. Irie told me and I listened. If I did what he wanted me to do, I could save you…But he never was telling the truth, but I never stopped killing people. I never stopped deceiving Kei-chan. He told me never to tell him and so I never told him. I kept on lying to him and he kept falling deeper and deeper with me. I dragged Kei-chan down to hell with me."

"I didn't need saving, Shion."

She smiles. "…You called me Shion. That's the first time you ever…Called me that."

"I guess it was. I guess I never knew the difference even back then."

"It's not your fault… But it's my fault, for not recognizing you… I kept on calling you Rai, without a care in the world."

I understood now. The girl I knew as Miyumi was indeed Shion. It seemed that the syndrome did not come into effect until she had made it back to Hinamizawa. It seemed that her arrival here was the trigger.

"That's not a big deal. I didn't even know you were supposed to call me anything else back then."

"But I…I thought I was betraying you – having those thoughts of someone else, even though I was with you…I hesitated. I'm sorry…It was all so wrong of me."

"You knew the entire time, didn't you? That coming back here would make your sister resurface."

She tries to nod her head.

"I'm sorry. I couldn't tell you…Because I couldn't tell a total stranger…But then you weren't a total stranger."

"I forgive you." I stop her before she can cast any further blame on herself. "This was never your fault."

"That isn't true… this doesn't change what I did twelve years ago."

"You weren't at fault. It was my bastard Uncle and my bitch aunt that caused all the trouble."

"I still killed them. That was wrong to begin with."

I had about enough of this. I try to turn onto my bad shoulder and I flimsily move my right arm underneath me as I pull her closer to me with my left arm. I end up wrapping them both around her head.

"It wasn't your fault. It'll never be your fault."

"…I won't go to heaven."

"Yes you will. Otherwise I'll go up there and kick God's ass myself."

She tries to laugh but she finds herself unable to.

"Satoshi-kun…?"

"Yeah?"

"Did you enjoy listening to me read?"

"Of course I did."

"You still remember?"

"Of course I do." It was the truth. In fact, it had been my memories of Shion that had ultimately led me to recovering my identity.

"That's wonderful…"

She coughs. I can more or less tell that she coughed up blood.

"…It's about time…"

"You take as long as you need."

"Satoshi…"

"Yeah?"

"If you forgot everything again, would you still fall in love with me?"

"It worked the first time, didn't it?"

"I guess it did…"

"Shion?"

She doesn't make any sound but I go ahead and speak anyway.

"It's okay. You can rest now. I swear, I'll protect everything you left behind."

"I know you will…Because you're the only one in the world that…"

Her voice seems to crack. I move my head closer to her to see if I can pick up some audible noise.

But she's already gone. She's already moved on to the next world.

_In dying I saved you. In dying I was left alone. Now we're the same. And so I'll live the way you have. And perhaps one day, when we can finally meet again, I will have suffered for all those who died._

_And when I pass on as well, I will not fear._

_For the cicadas know. And the cicadas will pass on my proof of existence, for all of eternity._

_So then you and I can finally stand together once more._

* * *

><p>It was certainly over. I knew it was over. And so I needed to report to Keiichi.<p>

Satoshi himself was under the influence of the syndrome the entire time. It was a syndrome – although I doubt it can really be attributed solely to the Hinamizawa Syndrome at this point – that essentially made him almost superhuman. But that only applied to his stamina. It acted essentially as a sort of unending adrenaline rush – although there didn't seem to be an exact cause for it. Despite this, he did not seem capable of defeating the Sonozaki. So Keiichi managed to determine that the key to success in the fight was breaking the hold the syndrome had on Shion – essentially breaking down what allowed the personality of her younger sister to surface and deteriorating that which gave her the same sort of inhumanity that plagued Satoshi. As the fight continued, it appeared that Shion's reliance on a desire to live through the death of others was what drove her – her will and her sister's wills seemed to merge. That was the source of her syndrome – and it was far more rational than the other possibility.

But first Keiichi needed to experiment. He needed to determine what forces were behind the scenes here. As a result, he needed to see Satoshi fail once before he could determine what course of action to take. By seeing Satoshi fail yet still manage to survive, Keiichi had evidence for the irrational side of things. But it would seem that Satoshi's survival depended on his key landing on a certain chunk of rock protruding high enough above his landing spot, which resulted in his survival of the fall. Keiichi determined that the rational side of things was in fact the true side of things.

After this was proven to him, Keiichi contacted him and, with his knowledge of twelve years ago he was able to inform Satoshi of how to break Shion's syndrome. Keiichi understood immediately how to resolve it. For he had been there twelve years ago and with complete certainty he was able to define exactly what had gone on in her mind. He blamed himself entirely for her condition, but it seemed that she was partially to blame as well.

And now, Shion Sonozaki was dead. Satoshi was likely going to rot where he was for the time being, and everything leading up to the conclusion had finally been resolved.

I quickly call Keiichi, an action that I'm more than accustomed to doing. It's almost second nature to me at this point.

He picks up instantly and I immediately begin my report.

"It's over. Sonozaki is dead."

"_Both of them?"_

"Both of them."

He sighs. He sighs and I wish nothing more than to be by his side in that very moment. His voice is filled with both relief and sadness – perhaps despair as well. For in the end two people that had at one point meant the world to him were both dead – even though he was the one primarily at fault for their deaths to have occurred in the first place.

"It's okay." I whisper to him. "They both needed to rest. They were both suffering for too long. And without you this wouldn't have been possible. You told him what he needed to know. Without you she would have just kept going, on and on forever. You don't have to weigh yourself down with it anymore."

"_Ah…Thanks, Natsumi. I needed to hear that." _I smile to myself.

"It's never any trouble…But now, are we finally ready?"

"…_Yes. You know what to do." _

"Then I will proceed." As I am about to end the call, he interrupts me.

"…_Wait a moment."_

"What is it?"

"_When you return, I might not be there. In fact, I'm going to blow the hospital altogether. It won't be much trouble."_

Confusion. I was hit with confusion. Why was he going to make a move now of all times? It was so close to the promised hour, and afterward he would be free of everything. He risked a great deal by making a move this early.

"Are you sure? Can we afford to risk it?"

"_It'll be fine. I'll wait as long as I have to for you to find me. You won't have to worry about missing me."_

"Okay. Just be careful. I'd rather be there to do this with you, but your judgment tends to be better than mine."

"_Alright. I'll be waiting."_

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

I didn't even ask where it was he was going to be. There would be only one place that he would go to at this point.

And so I decided to continue with my part of the plan – my final task before my job here was finished.

From the Sonozaki estate I could see quite a bit of the village. I could remember bits and pieces, but ultimately I fled this place for a reason – or rather my family did for a reason. But I have returned for a reason. And to ensure that Keiichi will never betray me as Akira had I could not betray him.

This place no longer had any value to me. And so I was prepared to do what I had to do.

The opposition had mostly been defeated at this point. At this stage of the game all I had to do was give the call to the Yamainu – or rather what was left of them – and carry out the final stage of the operation. We were all cooped up in the estate, currently tending to the wounded, although the rest of the Yamainu had already been informed. After all, Keiichi was now their leader, and as Keiichi had decided he would relinquish control of the group to the group and they would finally have their independence from those that always stood above them.

Throwing on the black poncho that served as a raincoat, I went outside, back into the cold and desolate rain. I had become immune to it at this point, given how I had been tailing Satoshi the entire time from the moment he set out with the two girls – neither of which seem to have survived the battle. I stared out along the cold and lifeless landscape – what little remaining forest life there had been must have died as a result of this incident.

Off in the distance I spotted a figure – it was a rather familiar figure, as I had seen the man many times over the last several months. But now he seemed far more lost and distant than he ever had before. It was Nagi – the same Nagi who appeared to be so emotionless and automated in the past now seemed to be in a state of total despair. I wouldn't blame him, however.

I had told him that Satoshi had failed, after all. He had truly come to believe that his entire plan had ended in total failure. It was his plan, mind you. He was the one who was the progenitor for the entire operation that played out in this village.

Nagi claimed to just be another old man. But he was in fact not just another old man. He was far more important than just that. His collaboration with the various survivors of the incident and his knowledge of exactly where every single one of them had gone hiding away to alone suggested more than that. He was clearly a man who once had power in Hinamizawa. And In the end I assumed that he would eventually take control once Satoshi, the one that the village survivors would ultimately follow to the ends of the earth, would leave him in control.

But with Satoshi dead, those that thoroughly supported Satoshi and had been far more skeptical of being led by Nagi, although less vocal than those that supported the opposite, would in all likelihood not stand for Nagi's sudden control over the village. Nagi would not be able to control them and the village would just collapse again.

But more importantly Nagi had wanted to revive his old home. And so he put everything on the line and tried to hope that Satoshi would kill Mion. But now that he believed it was all over, he was in this state of despair.

"Nagi." I call out to him.

He continues to walk forward at the same slow pace. It wasn't very usual of him. He was clearly in both a state of deep thought and a state of deep dread.

"It's over, isn't it? We've lost everything, haven't we?"

"Indeed. Without a leader, who will be able to control the sheep?" I continue to play along with Keiichi's plan. It was all staged in this way – Nagi would be lied to in order to ensure our success.

"It is all so true...Why must things always end this way?"

"This village is cursed, isn't it?"

"Indeed it is… I once thought that we could somehow escape it. I was so sure…But now, it's far too late. We must retreat."

"The village is empty. We've killed everyone except for Sonozaki. Is it so necessary that we retreat?"

"The demon will not stop until we all have perished. We must abandon this place and build a new Hinamizawa elsewhere. This land is forever lost to us."

"Build a new Hinamizawa? And how do you want to do that? Do you want to rebuild the village that stood here twelve years ago? And accomplish what? Won't the people just degenerate back into what they were?"

"…What do you mean?" Nagi was genuinely confused. I had contradicted myself there on purpose, but it appeared that he hadn't picked up on it. But the truth had to come out. I would tell him all that I needed to. It was at the point where allowing this man to continue on like this would prove to do more harm than good.

It was Keiichi's orders. Allowing him to go down this was allowed so he could learn just how futile it was to try to rebuild Hinamizawa. If Nagi still lives, he must not be permitted to form a new Hinamizawa.

"You need to face reality – going down this path will only result in more death. The people will just return to their worship of their god, won't they? They still believe in Oyashiro-sama. Won't things just end up the same way they did twelve years ago?"

"There will be no Oyashiro. Without a God, there will be no fear. Without fear there will be no chaos. We will be able to survive if things are like that."

"And you expect people to just accept that? These people abandoned the _village_ – not their god. You seriously believe that the general population would agree with something like that? Even if there are only six of you right now there will be plenty more to come – and that brings me to another problem. Can't you understand that the outside world will see this incident as a curse? They will realize that the solution given to them didn't work, and they will have witnesses to tell them about it. Do you really think you'll be allowed to just continue your plan to make another Hinamizawa?"

"Witnesses? There are no witnesses to this."

"The two girls."

"They are both dead, in all likelihood."

"But if they aren't?"

"One of them isn't even human."

"That aside, the other one is. The other one can testify to everything. Can't you see how many holes there are in this? You have to let this die. Hinamizawa had its time, but that was twelve years ago."

"Are you thinking of stopping me now?" Nagi's voice trembled slightly. I could tell he was fuming with anger, even though his expression seemed unchanging.

"You have to stop this. And if you don't I'm going to stop you. I can't guarantee that you'll live if it comes to that."

He laughs. "You? You would attempt to kill me? I'm sorry, but as we stand right now, I will be able to draw my naginata long before you can aim any sort of firearm at me."

"I don't need to be the one to shoot you."

With that I snap my fingers.

And in that moment a full clip of bullets sink into Nagi's side. He falls over, howling in pain. Apparently he was alive, even if just for the moment.

The Yamainu operative that had shot him steps out of the bushes.

"Are we prepared to proceed with the last stage?" He asks somewhat monotonously.

"Yes. Call everyone and have them begin."

"Shall we wait for you to take your leave?"

"No. I will be fine regardless. I have unfinished business here anyhow."

The man nods his head and runs off to begin the final stages of our plan.

"Y-You…What are you…Really doing here?" Nagi hoarsely manages to moan. He hadn't bled out yet, which was somewhat surprising given how dead on the Yamainu soldier's shot had been.

The guise of a loyal citizen of Hinamizawa fell entirely. "I am here to do as my beloved wishes. That is all. I was never here to follow you. I just did as you told me so I could make my way back here."

"A man…Sending a woman to do his work for him…? What sort of coward is he?"

"The most cowardly man to ever walk the earth. But that does not change the fact that I will live and die for him as necessary."

"You're being fooled, Kimiyoshi…I hope you realize that."

"There is where you're wrong. He tried to live for others but ended up dying because of others. And so he might find absolution, I will live for him and die for him as he sees fit."

"No man lives for anyone but himself."

"He tried to be different. He tried but he failed. And then this village took his life away. But now he can live free from that. That much I owe him, simply because I can understand him better than anyone else."

"It seems that you're only being fooled by yourself… I pity you."

"Sadly I don't pity you."

I draw my handgun from underneath the poncho and without any sort of hesitation I blow open his skull.

Nagi was dead, and so it was time.

"_Natsumi…There's one more thing I need you to do. But you might not want to do this."_

"_I already told you, I'll do anything."_

"_Alright…"_

I reached back into my pocket and pulled out the small device. This would only work in a short range, and so it would only function properly on a small section of the intended range for this final stage of the plan.

"_Hinamizawa itself will never be the same. It can't go back to the way it was. You understand that, right?"_

"_Of course I do."_

"_Then you have to know that there are too many different sides conspiring to use it for their own personal gain. So we have to end things once and for all."_

"_But how can we do that."_

"_There's a single way."_

I received the call. The phone vibrated and just from the call happening at that moment I knew it was about to occur. I stomached whatever memories I had of this place and of the people that once inhabited it. I pressed the button on the small device.

"_When everything is over, Hinamizawa must no longer stand."_

"…"

"_I will have it arranged."_

In that moment, the sky lit up. All over the village the same orange haze engulfed everything around it and everything within it. The building behind me and the buildings all around me were engulfed in that same orange haze.

"_Burn it to the ground. Not a single trace of it should remain. Burn away the village and its past. Erase it all. Erase everything and everyone will finally be free. No one will have to be tied down to that place anymore."_

The Sonozaki estate progressively imploded on itself, with the explosives planted inside every individual building that composed the estate going off all at the same time. The village around it did much the same – the Yamainu operatives stationed at key locations around the village all activated the remote explosives and the village went up in a large orange pyre.

I could hear the screams of those inside the estate. But I didn't care anymore.

This village collapsed around me. As it did I could almost feel the curse lifting – everything was to be erased. The village, its history, and everything that made it what it was. Hinamizawa would fade to ashes and all that would remain would be the scorched ruins of a nameless place.

Hinamizawa would forever be forgotten. There would be no small urban war reported to the masses. There would only be a large scale forest fire. And the authorities would never investigate and so the truth would forever be hidden in the flames. And years later, nature would grow over the remains and so even the earth itself would have forgotten about Hinamizawa.

And so with no memory, the village and its people could finally fade away. No longer would they be tied down to the memories of this place. And so they would finally be free, and they would be free for all eternity.

I felt quite relieved myself. I felt a great weight lift from myself as well. It was my own memories of this place. I didn't have that sick feeling any longer – It all just faded away, with my own past as well.

I killed my family members because of that village. I killed my husband only because he betrayed me.

I did those things, and this village had been the cause.

It was over. The village was gone, and with it the cause for the things that I did. The village that cursed me disappeared in the smoke and flames, and so a place that had caused terrible pain for all those that were close to me vanished. The stigma that had plagued the earth for so long was finally lifted.

Keiichi had done a wonderful thing. It was all thanks to him. It was all thanks to him that I no longer had to gaze upon the village that had killed my family.

I loved him more than ever before, in all honesty.

But as my mind wandered, suddenly I heard a familiar sound –

The loading of a pistol.

My hands shoot up and I slowly turn around, only to be met with the face of one of my co-workers.

Reiji Nakamura – or more appropriately, Oishi Kuraudo. He had some sort of a revolver trained on my forehead.

"What…What have you done? Do you have _any_ idea what you've done?"

"I've stopped you and your band of co-horts from getting filthy rich. The village is gone, and so is the conflict that you intended to use as a basis for your plot."

"You knew, even…You damned girl…I made your fucking survival possible, and what do I get in return? Absolutely fucking _nothing_!" He continued to fume as his grand plan literally went up in flames.

"Let's not pretend anymore. You helped me so you would get your pay. That was all there was to it."

"You bitch…I'm going to kill you, here and now. And this time no fucked up lunatic doctor is going to show up to save you."

He was about to make his shot before another voice rung out.

"Ah, you see, Mister Delicious, there's where you're wrong. _Dead_ wrong." He laughed a bit as he said that. "Oh, did I just make a joke? I did! And it was a funny one too! What a good day today is!" He beamed as he waved around a revolver of his own.

"Y-You…What the fuck are you doing here?" Oishi stares him down.

"Hm…I don't remember. Anyway, boom goes the dynamite. Goodnight, Mister Delicious."

Before Oishi could pull his trigger, Saturn Anne pulls his own. Oishi collapses on his side, although he hadn't fully died quite just yet.

"You see, Oishi…" Anne whispered into his ear. "I'm afraid Mion didn't live long enough to kill you. So…I've come to kill you in her place."

His eyes widened. "That's right…She was a…Woman of her word…Wasn't she?"

"Indeed. And since she couldn't make it, I have killed you for no other reason than to honor the memory of an innocent little girl who _you_ murdered."

Oishi's eyes drooped slightly. "Damn you… Damn you… Damn Maebara… Damn that bitch too… Damn you all…" He breathed his last, and so Oishi Kuraudo was no more.

"And just like that another star goes out. Oh well. He was a bit dull around the edges anyhow." Anne went back to his laughing routine. It was a tad nonsensical, but he _did_ save my life just now, so it all worked out in the end.

"Why did you come here?" I ask him. I didn't thank him. It was a bit rude, but I had to keep things curt.

"Let's get serious here for a moment." He suddenly began to speak in the tone I was much more used to. "The government wants this whole thing shut down. Burning the village was a grand idea, so half the work is already done. But a few rich people lost their kids and we need to give them bodies or at least confirmed death counts."

"And you're doing this all why exactly? Did your benefactor threaten to cut our funding?"

"Something like that. I'm mainly here to do damage control. We aren't sending in anyone really, just a few officers to handle with the fire. Although we need to wait for the wood to burn thoroughly. That was the plan, right?"

"Ah, it's good that you're still on our side." I sigh with relief. "Yeah, that's the plan. But I don't know about those children. The one died in the village, and the girl with Satoshi vanished. I don't know where she is, but she might be dead as well. There was apparently another one who hasn't been found. We found another body in addition to the one of the girl in the village, so that makes two dead and two missing, right?"

"That's about it. Go get some rest. I'll handle things from here. You know where End Dreamer's going to meet up with you at?"

"Yeah. I'll take a break for a bit and then I'll be heading over there."

"Alright then." He smiles before bowing. "It was a pleasure working with you, my favorite kunoichi of the month." He turns to leave at that point.

I sighed before giving a slight smile back. He'd been calling me that all week – apparently he didn't have any idea of how physically capable I was. I wasn't even that proficient with anything other than climbing trees, but he still took to calling me by that name.

I turned to leave.

"Natsumi." He calls out one last time.

"Hm?"

"He hates himself. He hates himself for things he never even had any control over. He hates himself for being human. I for one think he realizes that, but ultimately while I _am _his doctor I can't convince him to ever forgive himself. You have to be the one to do that. Do you understand?"

I slowly nod my head. "If he persecutes himself enough, then maybe I can bring myself to do it."

"He'll reach that point one day. It might be years from now, but one day he'll finally accomplish everything he can. But even then he'll still hate himself until the moment his short life ends. You must do it. Got it? You're the only one."

"…Alright. I'll do it then."

With that the doctor walks off and I am finally left alone to my thoughts.

I sighed with relief once again. It was all finally over. I'd done my part and everything had been a huge success. That would be the last I would see of the remains of Hinamizawa. And so I took off, leaving my past behind me and looking toward the future – a future that I wouldn't have to face alone.

I took the doctor's last words to heart. In the end I wouldn't be the one facing the future – I would be the one helping the person closest to me face the future.

I decided then and there. I would spend the rest of my life fulfilling that purpose.

* * *

><p>My, hasn't this farce taken a turn for the worst? It was all a part of the plan, but in the end things were far more dreadful than they needed to be.<p>

But things need to be resolved. I have things to do before I leave here.

Therefore, this will be the eighth and final Bio Study Observation. And it will be a field observation.

I leave Natsumi where she was and I head into the mostly tame flames. The pouring rain finished off the smaller fires relatively quickly, but at this point it had been reduced to a drizzle and so the bulk of the flames still seem to be steadily holding their ground. The buildings still burn, and the Sonozaki estate burns with them. I didn't know the exact number of people that died today – all of which would simply be removed from every single record imaginable, mind you – but there were certainly more than we could match names and faces with. Of course the fact that many of these smoldering corpses didn't even have faces made things even worse.

The bodies littered the streets. Many were gouged with blades while some were shot with bullets. The causes of death could mostly be determined from sight alone, and even I felt a tad sick to my stomach observing them all.

I managed to work my way along the ash covered sidewalks. I had one destination in particular in mind, but I was in no rush to get there. Once the fires burned the village to the ground, the team outside the village would be allowed to put out the main section of the fire. At the present moment they were simply containing it.

I continued down the sidewalk until I managed to figure out where my destination was. I had in fact never been here – I had never even been in this village. But to think that this place was the origin of everything – everything that made these past few months some of the strangest I have ever seen. Eventually the place of note happened to appear around the corner of a building – the Furude Shrine.

I worked my way over to the shrine, but more importantly to the forbidden storehouse that all except for the Furude miko were banned from entering.

The lock on the door was damaged, likely from years of weather damage. I managed to slip it off with little issue and I worked my way inside.

Inside was the remainder of the struggle that had gone on during Satoshi Houjou's initial visit to the village. Things had been knocked all over the place, but my point of interest was still firmly intact. I closed the door behind me and proceeded over to the crystal ball that was firmly encased in an old iron box.

"Hm…I see…So is this a closed enough room for you, my dear miko?"

I hope you remember how unreliable narration can be. I hope you also recall how meaningless it can be. Because I'm about to deliver some of my own.

"You shouldn't go through other people's belongings." The voice of the miko in question murmurs from behind me.

I turn to find myself greeted with the hollow form of Rika Furude.

"It's about time I met you. Twelve years too late, but better late than never."

She smiles at me before her face returns to a rather neutral position. "Shall I introduce myself as Rika Furude? Or Fredericka Bernkastel?"

"I could care less. But I'm more interested in the Shinto priestess than the Witch of Miracles."

"Then I'm Rika Furude. It's nice to meet you."

"That's right…We never met. You may call me Saturn Anne."

"Can't I just call you Satan instead? I mean really, Louis Cypher might have been clever, but really? Saturn Anne? What kind of a name is that?"

"You don't have the tastes for pseudo intelligent acronyms, I suppose. More importantly, I go by the name Astaroth these days."

"Regardless, you came here for a reason. What was it?"

"I wanted to test something for myself."

"And what was that?"

"If this crystal ball that belonged to your ancestor really amounted to anything."

"So were you satisfied?"

"Potentially. All I know now is whether or not angels and demons really exist."

"But aren't you supposed to know that already?"

"That all depends on who you mean be 'me.' That can make all the difference."

"Hm…I suppose you have a point."

"…I have one last question for you."

"And what is that?"

"Are you ready? Are you ready to finally move on and be free of the hell I created for you?"

"Of course I am." Her stern expression softens and she smiles. "…I've waited. I've waited for so very long… And finally I can rest…With everyone who is important to me."

"So then you do not despise Maebara?"

"Of course I don't. I love him. I love him as much as I ever did…And now, he's set us free…"

"So I take it he'll be welcomed with open arms."

"Of course he will…Only Mion will be allowed to love him then, since she was robbed of that joy in life…But I already had him once. I won't care…"

With that, the form of Rika Furude seemed to disappear.

"…Because he'll be home. Because we can all be with him again. That will be enough…"

Those were the final words she spoke to me.

I couldn't help but smile myself.

I dropped the crystal ball on the floor and it shattered into many tiny pieces. I turned to leave the storehouse.

I open the door and find myself back in the burning wasteland that is Hinamizawa. The fire had engulfed even the Furude Shrine, and in a matter of minutes my secondary destination might not even be standing.

I head off, this time searching for the Irie Clinic. The place where all of this began, and ultimately the place where all of it ended.

The clinic was still in one piece, but the exterior was littered with bodies. I wasn't sure exactly how so many people were killed in such quick succession, but in the end it didn't matter. I opened the front door and expected the inside to be relatively unremarkable, and so it was. I proceeded down the staircase in front of me, and all the way towards the bottom I found there to be very little interesting about the place – it was empty. There weren't even any dead bodies. I wondered how it was possible, but then again, considering how _that girl_ was down here it makes a bit more sense.

I eventually wandered into what I believed was the lowest level of the clinic. I was aware that it went several levels underground but I hadn't expected something quite like this.

As I went to survey the rooms, out of the corner of my eye I spotted a very small trail of blood. Following it into one of the rooms I found what I was looking for.

On one end of the room was a girl dressed in the attire of St. Lucia's Boarding School. She was seemingly unconscious but she was clearly the source of that blood trail. She certainly wasn't dead, and she would likely be the only one of the girls from that school who would make it out alive.

On the other end was Irie Kyosuke. The progenitor for the 1995 disaster and doubtlessly the leader of the occultist lunatics that invaded the village. He on the other hand was clearly dead. His head was ripped open, as was a decent part of his chest and lower abdomen. I have a strange feeling that the girl across from him didn't do all of this damage herself – but there was no one else in this room.

Regardless of that fact, this scene was rather tragic in nature. The father and the daughter. The daughter abandoned by the father and the father abandoned by the people he abandoned his daughter for. Both of their stories were sad in nature. But in the end at least the innocent one would live to see another day.

I lift the girl into my shoulders and pull her out of the room. Kyosuke's body would be fine where it was, and the authorities would at least be able to attribute his death to a violent death. The rest of the bodies would be too charred to examine. But with Kyosuke dead, word of even more murders in Hinamizawa would spread, but with the village burned to the ground, the outside world would attribute it to mere chance – not to a curse, or a disease, or anything of the sort.

The chapter on Hinamizawa would finally close forever. And it was better that way.

I pulled the girl outside and sat her on the stone pavement next to me. While she slept I simply sat next to her and watched the flames eat away the last of this blight upon the world.

I sighed.

It was all finally over. I had been lucky enough to be a survivor of this twelve year flashback and in the end I was grateful for it. But in the end I wondered if it all amounted to anything.

After all, certainly there had to be more Hinamizawas. Surely, this was not the only blight upon this world.

And so I began to wonder – what if the same thing happened elsewhere?

Would the outcome be the same?

Or were there truly demonic forces at work in this village, thus making it unique?

But I believe that Keiichi himself managed to disprove the latter. There never were any demons, were there?

So then perhaps the outcome would be the same.

And then it hit me. Like the answer to life, only far less angelic.

"Ah…We all have it, don't we?"

So, do you want to know the truth?

Do you want to know what the user defined truth is?

It is simple. And there is only one possibility – the only possibility that truly matters. Hinamizawa does not matter. Because Hinamizawa is not alone. If Hinamizawa is not unique, then certainly there is more than one Hinamizawa. If there is more than one Hinamizawa, then there is more than one syndrome.

The Hinamizawa syndrome – we all have it.

It is simply a manifestation of our fears – an extreme metaphor for the darkness in all of our hearts.

There's no such thing as a Devil Theory or whatever it was they called it. There is a simple explanation for everything. You might not know the true answer, but in the end it all comes back to a basic concept.

It is all just deep fear that all humans possess. A deep fear that humans may act upon.

All that is user defined are the 'what' and 'why'.

We are all humans, and we all have free will. We have the free will to choose, and the free will to deny. When we err, we create our own darkness. And that darkness grows until we can no longer control it. And for some – but not for all – that fear manifests itself. And that is the source of all darkness.

The user defined truth is simply this.

Hinamizawa was but one example of humanity. It is but one of many.

Hinamizawa exists because there are humans. Humans exist everywhere.

Hinamizawa was destroyed because there are humans. Humans will spread this same sort of madness everywhere.

The cicadas cry – because we are humans.

Because the cicadas know.

The cicadas know the folly of mankind.

And in the end, no matter how much one believes and how much one hopes, there is no redemption. There is no survival.

When the cicadas cry, humans cry right along with them.

And when they cry, no one will be free from suffering.

There is no fate. There is no destiny. There is only free will.

There are only humans. There have only ever been humans. And humans will always make mistakes.

And in the end humans will always pay for them.

That is the truth. And in the end, were we any better off knowing the truth?

Humans err, and because of that they have limits. But doesn't the concept of free will deny that? Shouldn't human beings have infinite potential? Should that not be the way things should be?

Or perhaps we are simply slaves to that very freedom – a freedom that will ultimately end in the chaos that has unfolded in this village and in many like it.

And that is the reality of it all.

Perhaps this is why – when the cicadas cry, there are no true survivors.

* * *

><p><em>Case of the End Dreamer Result: <em>

Dr. Saturn Anne- Continues to live, the truth he had reached never amounting to anything. He is a phantom, and as a phantom he will wander the sea of fragments for all eternity.

Maebara Keiichi – Alive, even if only for the moment. He lives in the moment, and so he lives for the present. The past and future no longer matter to him. But he will die one day, and the day he dies he will live forever.

Natsumi Kimiyoshi – She lives in the moment, as she must live with Keiichi. She will live, but she will live until the day she dies.

Naoto Sakagami- Her death was a meaningless one, but a death none the less. Her death was a symbol of the hopelessness of it all. And yet her death was still meaningless.

Harumi Edogawa- In death she was set free, but those she left behind hardly felt the same way. Her death was necessary, because without her death she would have lived in agony for the rest of her life.

Yoko Narukami – She was the one to survive, but she lost everything in the process. When death will claim her she will be at peace with everything, but is that truly what is best for her?

Yomi Sumidera- Missing.

Saya- Her death was an illusion. She was an illusion. She may have been an illusion of a higher power. But that doesn't change the fact that she was an illusion. Saya did live, once, but her death was a confirmation that she never lived to begin with. Such is the nature of both the Unreliable Narrator and her begotten child.

Satoshi Houjou- Missing.

Shion Sonozaki- While Mion Sonozaki never had the chance to live; her sister gave her the possibility to live. The two were far too similar, and that ultimately became their undoing. In the end she wanted it all to stop – she lost far too much to lose everything again, but in the end she had no control over what she became. Set free from her pain, she died as she had dreamed she could have lived – in the arms of the one person she loved. Her death had meaning. And so her life must have had meaning as well.

Oishi Kuraudo- While he outlived Mion, his death was still carried out in her name. His plan failed miserably and the man who erred nearly as gravely as Miyo Takano received his final judgment.

Miyo Takano- She lives. That is her punishment. She will live a long and fruitless life. That is her destiny – a destiny that she chose for herself. Her sins outweigh that of any other man or woman, and in the end her death would never have been retribution for her crimes. And so she lives on, and she does so in agony – an agony greater than that of those she killed.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>_

The last Wrap Party is coming next…And that's going to be well over 20k. Be ready for it.


	28. The Last Wrap Party

**Wrap Party **

_We didn't try to defy it. We didn't try to break the hold fate had fastened to the dreadful disaster all those years ago and we didn't even attempt to challenge it. In the end there were only two people who could ever have made a difference, but both of them failed before the end. Even though many tried to have hope in a future, it simply wasn't enough. There was far too much dread and even if I, as a complete bystander to all that occurred, had so much as held an ounce of faith, then perhaps it would have been possible. But nay, no such possibility existed. We all simply dreaded. We abandoned all hope. And that was why we – or rather, they – lost. There was no reason this tale should have ended pleasantly. _

_And yet, there is still this last tale that not I alone, but everyone will reveal to you all at once. There is yet redemption to be found, even this far off the deep end and this deep into the depths of hell. This tale will simply bring about that which the resolution did not. In reality, it is still uncertain if any of this tale even so much as existed. In fact, given the unreliable nature of my old competitor and her equally as unreliable narration, the conclusion that you have seen might have been a complete fabrication in itself._

…_So, I suppose I shall endorse this tale, the tale that everyone wishes to share with you, with my own sort of grace. I will confirm that at least part of this tale is true._

_But beware, for the uncertainty that has accompanies you thus far will not go quietly. This tale might be the most unreliable of them all, and considering how this is the last tale it is rather fitting. Understand that no matter what perspective the story is told from, it is all unreliable. _

_In the end I will not bid you all farewell. Simply because this is not going to be the last time that we meet. I will, however, leave you on this note. _

_Now that you know the user defined truth, is there any real reason to the remainder of this tale?_

_And if there is – can you figure out what it is?_

_~ Dr. Saturn Anne_

_**Pivotal Characters (perspective gets the bold)  
><strong>__Just About Everyone  
><em>_**The Unreliable Narrator**_

* * *

><p><em>A Midday Thousand Year War <em>

She was simply wandering. She was wandering without a destination or even a general direction to wander in. She was doing nothing but moving. That was all she knew how to do. But she was certainly content. After all, it had been so long since she had even been able to do something like this.

It was possible thousands upon thousands of years ago. Her death had been guaranteed, but was slowed down considerably due to the love of her close friends who had managed to lessen the damage with a simple lie. That simple lie helped her to survive for quite a long time afterward, but even the most well crafted lies must fall apart some time. The Maebara Keichi who became Wizard Hunting Wright understood this better than anyone else.

It was during the Festival Chapter. That was the chapter of the Hinamizawa tale in which she met her ultimate doom. But in her death she finally regained her true identity that she had lost millennia ago as a result of her fatal logic error. While her fragmented self existed several places at once – including at the side of the Tohya Hachijo of the User Defined Fragment – she managed to restore herself over time. It had taken ages, but with the help of her precious miko Bernkastel she had finally been restored.

But as she was she was still Hanyuu Furude, the unreliable narrator of the User Defined Fragment. She was significantly older than she had been, now approximating the appearance of an eighteen year old woman, but she could not fully become Featherine Augustus Aurora until she could fully abandon her false demon shell and revive fully as the Witch of Theatergoing. But as it stood that false demon shell was still reality, and the history that came with it was certainly still just as real.

Hanyuu Furude continued to wander that vast and empty space until she realized that she could simply find a fragment to rest in for the time being. She found herself searching for a fragment until she managed to locate one small enough to suit her.

It was essentially a massive graveyard, with swords of all sorts littered about the grounds, with some staked over slabs of stone to serve as the tombstone, while others crowded around the largest tombstone off in the distance. It was a dark and dreary place, with most of the vegetation having died off seemingly long ago and the sky being some strange shade of hazel. It was, however, entirely void of life sans the light vegetation and so a perfect place for her to rest.

Sadly, such rest would never be granted to her. In the end she assumed it was her own fault for not covering her tracks all that well, but she wasn't really considering the possibility that anyone could have managed to track her down this quickly. But then again she _was_ one of the most powerful witches in existence. She could simply will someone's death and they would die.

But then again, she couldn't do that right now, could she?

"Ah, it seems I've finally found you." The man garbed in black with his seemingly signature black hat stood atop the largest of the tombstones, gazing down on her with his malicious grin. He did not need to hide his eyes from her, as they were both on even ground, relatively speaking.

"***********. I wasn't expecting to run into you so soon."

He almost gave her a look of disbelief, but quickly masked with a haughty laugh aimed at her response. It was rather hysterical sounding, but given who this man was it wasn't all that surprising that he'd have a few screws loose.

"Ah, I haven't heard that name in a _really _long time. You really _are_ her, aren't you?"

"Do you go by something else now?"

"Astaroth seems to be the name that stuck."

But that's not all that accurate a name, is it?"

"It's the one I picked out myself. It's rather ominous sounding, isn't it? I don't give a damn for how accurate it is or isn't. Besides…" Astaroth's seemingly more serious expression was quickly replaced with another lecherous grin. "You said it yourself. I can't go around advertising my power like that. It'd be bad publicity."

"So what are you here for?"

"What the hell do you think I'm here for?"

"I can assume you came because you planned on killing me before I regained most of my power?"

"Not completely true."

Hanyuu's previous expression had mixed with a small tinge of confusion. "Oh? Then what brings you here?"

"It's simple. I'm gonna kill you – that's a given. But first I'm going to beat you into submission, and then I'll fuck your lights out. _Then_ I'm going to kill you."

Hanyuu sighed. "Haven't you violated enough women in your day?"

"You've gotten a bit of an attitude over the years, haven't you?"

"You're a tad more obnoxious than when we last met. You've likely grown weaker as a result."

"Oh really? Wanna find out?"

"Since I don't have anything better to do…"

Hanyuu drew a long katana seemingly out of thin air and stood ready to fight. Astaroth grinned widely.

"Oh, so you've finally got the motivation? Then let's get this shit started."

Without even drawing a weapon, Astaroth broke out into a sprint from the top of the tombstone. Hanyuu made no movement whatsoever, but she knew that whatever attack he was planning on using would be nearly impossible to dodge. Therefore she would simply have to block the attack altogether.

Astaroth seemed to just run straight past her, but Hanyuu was assailed by what seemed to be invisible strikes from an invisible blade that seemed to hang somewhere in front of her. It took her a moment to realize that what she'd been hit with was Astaroth's attack – it had happened so quickly she could only feel the strikes as opposed to seeing them coming. In a matter of moment he did the same thing again. Hanyuu still could not grasp the true form of his attacks. Whatever blade he was using was far too quick for even her to catch a glimpse of.

Astaroth rounded again and made the same sort of attack. This time, Hanyuu managed to catch the blade mid swing and found the only opening she needed. She stabbed him roughly where his heart should have been, causing him to cough up blood before laughing and forcing the blade further into his body until he'd drawn himself as close to her as possible. He made a slash that did nothing but cut open a part of the top of her kimono, revealing the seemingly porcelain skin slightly above her chest underneath.

"Ah, it seems I missed." He was still taunting her, even now. He forced her to release the blade and, pulling it all the way out in a single fluid motion stabbed her in the shoulder with it. He was about to force her to the ground but Hanyuu managed to force him away with a small burst of raw energy she'd built up in a few seconds. Astaroth's other blade found its mark in her side, but it only managed to dig slightly into her skin. He backed away as to avoid the returning blow from the blade Hanyuu had just managed to wrench out of her shoulder.

"Oh come on. This is boring the shit out of me. Are you really so damn weak you can't even see these moves coming?"

"If I'd been allowed to rest as I planned to, then maybe you would've had the fight you were looking for."

"Are you really resorting to complaining? Damn, being a loli for a few centuries made you into a little bitch."

"If you think you've outclassed me altogether you'll find that you're very wrong."

"Then quit talking about it and _show me!_" Astaroth made a quick turn and seemed to jump straight at her.

With a single swing of the katana, which had done little but block Astaroth's constant blows up to this point, Astaroth was sent flying far off from his target, a spray of blood following him. He crashed into the ground and bounced along the ground much like a rag doll. He rolled over onto his side, exposing the fresh gash that ran from the base of his neck all the way to the other end of his body. But it wasn't a simple gash. The slash had seemingly cleaved most of his body in half; as his arm had gone flying off in a separate direction from the rest of his body.

He was silent for a few moments, but shifted his head so he could see her. Her expression was now far more stern than bored as it had been before – and now her eyes gave off the ominous purple glow that were all the evidence that he needed to know he was fighting his intended opponent.

He let out what seemed to be some sort of a pleased howl.

"Now, _there's _the woman I wanted to fight."

He attempted his dashing motion again, but this time he was met with a very strong blow from the now bloody red katana that sent him flying in another direction. It hadn't done the same amount of damage, but it had been enough to send him flying again.

He tried again, this time seemingly defying the laws of gravity and shooting himself at her at a speed and with such a spontaneous velocity that he just as entirely defied the laws of motion. He went spiraling towards her, likely trying to use the effect of the spin rather than the tip of his blade to deal substantial damage. By launching himself forward with that much propulsion, he had essentially turned his body into something that wasn't all that different from a bullet.

It didn't stop Hanyuu from completely blocking the strike. A sizable crack formed in the blade, but she had effectively stopped a man-sized bullet with a sword.

He backed away instantly, dropping to the ground and apparently catching his breath.

"Ah, there we go. Now I can start getting serious again."

"Don't even try to insinuate that you weren't fighting with your full strength."

"You don't know a damn thing, do you? I'm _very _disappointed in you. But in your defense you haven't had a good fight with me in…how many years was it?" He shook his head in disappointment before lifting the hat off of his head for the first time since his arrival.

She stared at him with a semblance of a look of shock. Instead of the face she had expected, she was met with the face of Maebara Keiichi – or more specifically, Maebara Keichi, a figment of the tales she had woven.

"You aren't even…!"

He laughed with a voice that clearly was not Keiichi's, nor was it even Keichi's. "Ah, now that's the look I wanted to see. I don't think I've genuinely surprised you once in the last six thousand years."

He dropped his blade to the ground next to him, stretching his arms out as wide as he could.

A large black cloud of smoke completely enveloped him.

"I am the king of this world…"

In a matter of seconds another black hat appeared atop his head and his eyes gave off the supernatural red glint that had driven many a human being to the edge of insanity. His hair grew significantly longer and overall he appeared to be less of Keichi and more of _that_ man.

"Yet I am the darkness of but one man… I am death and despair incarnate."

He was the one known as Keichi – the false copy of Keiichi that Hanyuu had created to fool the real Keiichi into repenting for crimes that may not have been his fault. But ultimately this was who he was – Keiichi's dark side, who was the true ruler of the user defined fragment. He had encased all those that had died in the Hinamizawa Disaster in Hell – a Hell that he had created and controlled all on his own. Despite having shown compassion by setting them all free, he was still evil incarnate. Because deep down all humans are essentially the same, and this was the form that Keiichi's darkness had taken.

She had created him. She had created him, but she had let him feed on the despair and hatred of humanity and he had grown to something that could easily crush her the way she was.

She readied her sword, but she knew that what was about to come spiraling her way wouldn't be as easily misdirected as his last attack.

Astaroth once again took to that spiral shape – but this item his body seemed to be wrapped in flames – pitch black flames that rolled along the ground around him as he spiraled towards her at ridiculously fast speeds.

The black flames quickly enveloped Hanyuu from all sides and her sword was ripped from her grasp by some strange wind. It was likely the force of the impact that Astaroth made with the ground. He hadn't even fully rammed into her. But before the flames could wrap around her completely she managed to jump away, leaping an incredibly long distance to avoid the attack. The flames didn't follow her for particularly long and so she managed to make it out almost completely unscathed. She was certain her sword would have been destroyed in whatever sort of attack Astaroth had prepared and so she decided against trying to find it. But just when she thought she was in the clear the flames once again came spiraling towards her like a massive wildfire spreading at an alarming rate. The flames danced along the nearly barren terrain as Astaroth apparently redirected his entire body midair towards her new position. All the while Hanyuu heard his sickening laugh – it was as if he were a broken record.

This time around she was forced to face the flames head on. At this point, trying to avoid the attack would do no good – she had to stop him by force. As he drew closer she took a single step forward and despite the wicked flicker of the flames she managed to see through the darkness and caught a glimpse of the red glint in her opponent's eyes. She readied herself and as he was about to collide with her she managed to grab him by the collar and swiftly kicked him in the stomach with the force of a freight train.

He gasped for air, but all the while Hanyuu did not let him go.

"Ah…So you've got enough of your power back that you can pull of _that _nasty motherfucker of a move, eh?" He tried to taunt her as he breathed heavily.

"I'm afraid so. Only a few more seconds and you will cease to exist. It was almost entertaining. I'll give you that. But I'm afraid we must part."

"You seem so certain that I'm down and out." He smiles.

Hanyuu's stern expression falters slightly, expressing her confusion ever so slightly. But it was certainly there – and that was all the confusion he needed to deliver a deadly counterattack.

"_Unholy storm of flames…Ragnarok...!"_ He chanted.

In that instant Hanyuu released him and tried to leap as far backward as she possibly could. And as she did a massive eruption of black flames poured from Astaroth's body. The thousands of flames scattered themselves throughout the air and suspended themselves midair, appearing to be candle lights without the candles themselves. He began to cackle once again, and in another instant he spread his arms far apart and began to float in the air.

In another moment the thousands of flames grew in size and spontaneously exploded. The explosion spread over the bulk of their battlefield – in the end Hanyuu was forced to abandon her scarf as it caught fire as she tried to escape the range. She was significantly burned by the excess flames but she seemed to avoid the attack with little damage.

Once the dust cleared, a massive crater had formed only a few feet away from her. It seemed he'd missed – but she had a feeling he had missed on purpose.

"I seem to have forgotten how powerful you were made. I've underestimated you. You have my apologies." Hanyuu really had no choice but to admit that he wasn't as much of a pushover as she had graded him before.

"Damn right you're sorry. You're just lucky I still have a heart. Otherwise I might've lost control right there."

Hanyuu knew that wasn't a bluff of any sort. The Unholy Flames of Nihil functioned as essentially an incredibly unstable sort of black magic. In almost all instances the person making use of the flames would not be spared from their destructive power. She recognized the black flames when he had used them initially, but she hadn't taken into account the possibility that he would fire off Ragnarok. She was more amazed that _he _had survived the usage of that attack.

"I suppose wasting any more time isn't possible." She sighed.

"You've got a point there. I might just kill you if you keep fighting like this…Come on, you can't have forgotten how to call your own sword."

"Are you sure?"

"Am I sure of what? That I want you to use it? Why the hell am I egging you on if I want you to pass up on it?"

"Case in point…Very well."

Hanyuu then summoned her true weapon – the Onigari no Ryuou. The golden blade shimmered into existence, appearing about an arm's length away from her, suspended in the air. She grasped the hilt and the blade shimmered with a faint purple glow.

"I'm sorry." She spoke softly.

But despite the situation he appeared to be in, Astaroth just kept on smiling. "Don't expect to kill me with that weapon."

There had to be a limit to his elitist behavior. But at this point it didn't seem like there was an end to his boasting.

"You can't be serious."

"Oh, but I am. You see, while you were busy being dead and everything, and considering how much of a bookworm the Keiichi from this fragment was, I went ahead and did a little reading – from the Akasha Arts, by the way."

"And what are the Akasha Arts?"

"Have you ever heard of the Sword of Akasha?"

"Not particularly."

"It's a Nordic weapon – I assume you're familiar with the story of the Tower of Babel?"

"Yes…And what does that weapon have to do with it?"

"This is the weapon version – a weapon built by humans, sealed away by the gods to protect themselves from its wrath."

"And what does it have to do with the Akasha Arts?"

"The Arts contain the magic necessary to summon that weapon…Although being a lesser being I can't do crap with that weapon."

"And so do you have some sort of an alternative?"

He grins. "You might be a bit more familiar with this weapon. It's from your neck of the woods, if you catch my drift."

At his side a small black void seems to fade into existence. As it does so the entire atmosphere of the battlefield seems to change.

In the next moment, the void begins to spin. It was a small black hole, and it was going to tear apart this fragment from the inside out. The swords scattered about were drawn towards the hole, and Hanyuu herself seemed to be drawn in. But before she was dragged anywhere near the hole Astaroth reached in and from within the black hole drew a long black sword, with a hilt shaped like the maw of a dragon. The black hole vanished instantly and all that remained was the sword, which began to glow with a dark haze.

"This is the countersign of that weapon – Demon Slayer Kusanagi."

That was a name Hanyuu was slightly more familiar with. But the sword Kusanagi was nothing like the weapon she saw before her.

"And what part of fiction did you drag that weapon out of?" Hanyuu continued to undermine the power of the weapon despite the fact that it was clearly infused with an immense power.

"Keiichi read a book about Japanese mythology once. He thought it would've been a bit more interesting if medieval dragons were involved. So now this sword is infused with the soul of a just as fictional dragon lord."

"Sounds fascinating."

"It'll look fascinating, once I run it through your skull."

With that he swung the sword a single time and a massive burst of flame that matched the arc of the swing sped towards her. The air carried the flames along like a sort of wave as if it were a massive gust of wind being sent spiraling toward her. She managed to avoid the first swing, but the second managed to strike her squarely.

Hanyuu recalled the legend of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi. This sword somewhat matched the description. The blade certainly was bending the air to its will – except it seemed to ignite something in the air. Certainly it was due to the supposed dragon soul infused with the blade. It seemed the so called dragon only supplemented the already powerful weapon.

"And the best thing about this weapon? It was especially made to rip _you _apart."

"I'm honored that someone would make such an absurd weapon with me in mind." She practically spat as she managed to avoid the third and fourth arcs of the sword.

"It's only a matter of time, you know…. You won't be able to keep this up. With each swing I rip off another layer of your shield. Once I eat away at that aura of yours you won't have anything left to defend yourself."

"You act as if I'm going to let you do that."

Hanyuu avoided another wave and tried to rush towards him before he could get off another swing. But before she could he simply pointed his left index finger at her and fired off a red laser of some sort. It was some concentration of raw energy and Hanyuu nearly took the full damage from the shot. She backed away but as she did Astaroth swung Kusanagi once again and this time she was sent flying backward.

With that single swing Hanyuu's barrier shattered completely. Her purple aura dissipated and she was left more or less completely defenseless. She tried to move, but she found the impact had drained her of most of her energy – the sapping effect had left her with barely enough energy to move at a crawl.

"Ah, there we go. Now for the grand finale."

He dropped the sword and began to walk towards her.

"I'm impressed…But I assume that it's my fault that you've become as strong as you are."

"You couldn't be more right about that. Your fragment was so non-specific I could manifest in whoever the hell I felt like."

"So you chose the doctor? Why?" Hanyuu managed to question despite her heavy breathing.

"Simply because he doesn't exist in any other fragment, and because he was so closely connected to Keiichi. I wonder now…Who was he? And why did you create him the way you did."

"You act as if I built that fragment myself from the ground up."

"You made _him, _at any rate. So tell me. What's the big secret? Why did you throw together such a convoluted man together…? Were you_ trying _to make it possible for me to break out of there?"

"You would have escaped either way. There was no way I could keep you contained. I created the largest lie I could come up with – I had to make him believe. I had to make Keiichi believe that he was a cruel and heartless person so he would be more willing to repent. I needed the burning of the village. Without it I would have been stuck in that limbo for a much longer time."

"And then you realized that by giving Keiichi's dark side a true form you put yourself in danger."

"In retrospect I don't think that creating you was the best idea I ever had. But as long as we didn't fight before I regained all of my power I figured you would be easy to handle."

"Of course. If you were just a _tiny bit _stronger I would've turned tail and ran. I don't feel like being erased from existence with a snap of a finger. But that wasn't the case."

"No. It wasn't." Hanyuu had essentially admitted defeat.

"But about the doctor. Why create him? What was your true reason?"

"I had no reason. But if you're curious, that man was made in the image of my late husband."

"Ah, Riku Furude, huh?" He nodded his head with understanding.

"Is that satisfactory?"

"No."

"Then what do you want to know about him?"

"Did you create him to fulfill your goals? Or did you create him to help me with mine?"

"Why would you think that I'd be looking to help you?"

"Because if you let me hang around that fragment for an even longer period of time, I would just feed off of everything and everyone inside it. So luring me out here before I could become too strong would've been the best course of action. But you didn't expect me to be able to do this so soon, did you?"

Hanyuu does not respond and so he grins again.

"Ah ha… I knew it. You see what your pet project has become? But more importantly, do you see just how powerful humans are?"

"You live in a fictitious world. You were born in a fictitious world. You aren't supposed to exist. You were born fictitiously and so you'll die fictitiously."

"Ah, but you can't exactly deny me, especially considering how I _do_ exist and I_ am _existing. If you're going to rely on something like that you need to understand the truth about what you've created. There is darkness in every heart. And because there are hearts in all fragments there is darkness in all fragments."

"But you aren't as omnipresent as the darkness in human hearts. You are simply the darkness in one man's heart."

He stretches his arms as wide as he could. "But because of that I can die and be reborn. You gave Keiichi Maebara's darkness a face and a name. And so as long as Keiichi Maebara exists, then I too exist!"

"I have a question for you, Astaroth."

"And what might that be?"

Hanyuu's eyes suddenly regained that purple glow from earlier. Astaroth's smile only widened at the sight.

"Why did you hesitate to kill me? You could have beaten me soundly right then and there. You might have been able to have your way with me on top of that. So why let me recover the remainder of my powers?"

"Because I don't _want _to fight Hainiryun. I want to fight the witch. Not the demon. And you're seriously boring me now. If I were fighting you for real I would've ended this fight a long time ago."

"But don't you know? You can't possibly survive that."

"But didn't I just tell you?" He shakes his head and smiles. "You can't kill me. Not anymore. Unless you can somehow kill every single Keiichi in every single fragment all at the exact same time. But I don't even think _you_ can pull off a stunt like that."

"But you won't be able to kill me either."

"Heh. We'll see about that."

As it was right now, she needed only a short while before she could revive as the Witch of Theatergoing, and by doing so essentially ensure her victory. She needed to stall him until that moment.

But she had a feeling that it wasn't going to be easily.

In an instant Astaroth once again held Kusanagi within his grasp. He took a single swing and this time the blade itself came into contact with Hanyuu's newly restored barrier. As she backs away he takes yet another swing, this one connecting with the Onigari no Ryuou. Hanyuu had managed to block the swing with some effectiveness, although the red wave of energy still tore through her barrier. The purple glow was already starting to fade out, even if only slightly. She blocks a second swing but her barrier is ripped even further.

Astaroth moves in for the kill. Disregarding her counter swing he grabs the Onigari no Ryuou by the hilt and forces it out of her hand. He tosses it to the side and in the single moment of confusion he slashes along Hanyuu's chest. Blood splatters over his coat, thus signifying the mortal wound that she had taken. It would seem that the physical blade itself did more damage than the wave it produced. With only that single strike her aura dissipated.

Grabbing her by the neck he slams her into the ground. He restrains her arms at her sides.

"Hm…I suppose this would be the part where I fuck your lights out."

"Then get it over with." She hisses.

"Hm…"

Astaroth forces his mouth against hers, but as he attempts to kiss her she oddly enough doesn't resist. Perhaps she had accepted her fate. He stops suddenly.

"Eh…Raping you isn't any fun. It'd be a lot better if things were the way they were before."

"So you'd prefer it if we legitimately had sex?"

"No shit, that's what I'm saying. Eh, I suppose I'll just settle for killing you."

He stands up and readies his sword – Only to find his sword missing entirely.

Hanyuu raises Kusanagi and squarely stabs him in the chest with it. Her hands nearly burned away from the heavy amount of negative energy that the blade possessed, but she managed to stab him with it before it could do any lasting damage. The blade fully pierces his heart and he howls in pain.

"_You bitch!_" He growls.

He backs away and continues to writhe in pain. He falls backwards and settles for flailing about on the floor. He was stuck with the sword in his chest – Astaroth could not pull the blade out himself, simply because the deterioration the weapon caused to demons would eat away at the moment of contact. Touching the blade would just cause his hands to melt instantaneously.

"Apologies. But if I allowed this to go on any longer you would've ended up killing me."

"_Fuck you…I swear to god…!_" He continues to grunt as he slowly bleeds out.

She turns, apparently already prepared to leave.

"I won't finish you off. You can have the pleasure of doing that yourself… But you can't right? You can't pull that weapon out yourself, because you're a demon too, right? It's a powerful sword, but if the owner can be rejected by it so easily it wasn't worth it. But you see, right? If you are simply trapped here, you can't spread yourself across the fragments. You are not omnipresent yet, at any rate."

She walks off ignoring the sounds of his screams and swears.

But as she is about to leave the fragment entirely, his screaming gradually turns into laughter. She turns sharply to see Astaroth still on the ground, although his violent spasms had stopped entirely.

"Just kidding, you dumb bitch!"

In one fluid motion Astaroth ripped the sword out of his chest. He managed to stand up although he nearly stumbled over while doing so. The damage was still more or less permanent and so he was gasping for air, but he was still cackling the entire time.

Hanyuu was prepared to attack again, but she needed to know why he'd been able to do what he did.

"Don't forget that I'm not just a demon anymore."

"…Of course. You're still human to some degree, aren't you?"

"Damn right…This fight isn't over quite just yet."

"You should know by now that your sword won't do you any good. I know all of your tricks at this point. It's no use."

"Heh…You don't know _all _of my tricks."

Hanyuu stood ready to take on anything. But what was about to come – she never could've expected it. Not in a thousand years.

On the spot, a wall of black flames once again surrounded Astaroth. The flames of Nihil were gathering – but for what Hanyuu couldn't tell. But she heard a low growl that grew into an extremely loud howl, as if there was a wolf nearby.

In another moment she realizes that the howl came from Astaroth.

And the fires dissipate and standing before her is a gargantuan beast with a long glowing blood red mane, a thick coat of jet black fur, and a face shaped somewhat like that of a wolf. The beast's fangs were long black spikes that protruded from its mouth. Most of them were covered in blood to a certain degree, as if it had just eaten something alive. Its feral claws were just as long as the fangs, although they seemed to glow with a strange haze. This beast was a creature from Norse mythology, and was essentially a feral lion with the tail of a snake and the jaws of a shark – the wingless Chimera, the Manticore.

"What is…?" Hanyuu was taken completely off guard by this sudden transformation.

The beast continued to howl, but as she spoke it breaks out into a sickening sound – it was the sound of laughter. The sound of Astaroth's laughter.

"You…Just how much free time do you have on your hands? Coming up with something like this? I'm almost impressed." Hanyuu tried to say something witty, although she was a bit too alarmed by the sudden transformation to really sound unimpressed.

The beast lunged at her with its sharp claws, which apparently were infused with some sort of magic that kept them iron hot, only adding onto the damage the claws would be able to do. It tore through her robe and exposed her now bloodied back which seared from the heat and was burned to a serious degree just from a single strike. Each strike was stronger than the last and each strike left her battered and bruised. At some point during their scuffle the beast crushed the Onigari no Ryuou beneath its feet, thus removing Hanyuu's main form of attack form the equation.

With each strike Hanyuu became more and more desperate for a way to stop him – and then it suddenly hit her, as she avoided another one of the monster's strikes.

The wound – the wound was still there. The wound had not healed, despite his transformation. That would be his singular weak point. Perhaps it was still possible to defeat him if she made use of that.

But as she tries to move in for the attack, the beast grows wise to her plot. Blocking his chest he spews more flames of Nihil from his mouth. Hanyuu is enveloped in the flames and the bulk of her robe from her left shoulder to her arm was burned away. But in the process she managed to close in on it. Avoiding the tail end of the flames she attempts to head straight for the wound – but the Manticore literally tries to take a bite out of her. She is enveloped by the creature's mouth, but before it manages to swallow her she breaks off one of its fangs and stabs the roof of its mouth with it. It spits her out and violently thrashes about. The fang goes flying out of her reach before she could do anything else with it, and so she was forced to retreat.

She managed to back away, but it would seem that retreating wouldn't do her much good anymore. She needed a plan of attack, and she needed it now. But it didn't seem like it would give her any openings.

To add insult to injury, the Manticore leaps into the air and comes crashing down on top of her, refusing to let her escape. Rooting its arms into the ground, it begins to drain the remaining life out of the battlefield to make itself stronger. Hanyuu tries to stop it, but its tail firmly wraps around her and suspends her midair. As it tightens her bones become progressively weaker to the point where she could easily be crushed to death right then and there. She knows that they will snap at any second, but there was nothing she could do about it.

But then she saw it. In a flash of insight she sees it –

She sees her opening. As the tail crushes her and the arms drain the life out of the battlefield, the Manticore leaves its wound defenseless. All she needed to do was somehow make an attempt to attack the wound from where she was. But was that even possible?

Hanyuu knows how to do it. She would ignite the wound, and she would do so with the most simplistic form of magic –simply snapping her fingers together and setting off the flame.

She tries to wiggle two of her fingers as close together as possible and concentrates intently on the wound itself.

She manages to snap them together and the wound ignites. The tail releases her and the beast howls in pain.

Hanyuu manages to back away, but if she stops now she wouldn't have another opportunity to beat him down. She runs as fast as inhumanly possible and grabs a remaining fragment of the fang she had managed to break off. And in a flash she stabs the wound with it.

The beast cries out even louder. Its arms rip out of the ground and in one last ditch effort to kill her it tries to claw at her again. But it falls over, the pain from the wound overriding all of its senses. It sways back and forth in a daze before finally collapsing entirely.

Hanyuu sighs. That fight could have been the end of her. Never had she imagined that Keiichi would have become so capable of these things.

The beast is once again enveloped in the flames of Nihil. In a matter of moments the flames dissipate once again and the tattered body of Astaroth is left on the ground in place of the beast.

"Ah…Dammit…I thought I…" He moaned as he attempted to move.

"It's over. Don't even try to get up and fight me again. It'll just be a waste of time."

"I almost…Had you…Fuck this earth…"

"Indeed…You almost did. I must apologize. I didn't understand just how powerful you could've become, Keiichi."

"Oh, so you're going to call me by that little pussy's name now?" He scoffs. "You'd be willing to piss me off on top of beating the shit out of me?"

Hanyuu walks over towards him and crouches down in front of him.

"You understand, don't you? It's a sign. A sign that I'm no longer going to deny you. You've earned that right."

"The right…To exist, huh? But didn't I tell you…?"

"Hm?"

"As long as Keiichi Maebara is human, I will exist. Whenever he lusts after those twins or your precious miko, I will be there guiding him. Whenever he kills for his own sake I will be shoving the blade into that person's chest right along with him. It's as simple as that…And I though you understood that."

"Very well. If you truly will exist forever, then I will simply have to acknowledge it."

"…Answer one last question for me."

"And what might that be?"

"Why…Why did you differentiate? Why Keiichi with a single 'I'?"

"Because Keichi and Keiichi are different people. Keiichi's dark side needed a name, didn't it? And of course ********* wouldn't cut it."

"So then you're saying that…You deceived even him? For your own sake?"

"Indeed."

He laughs. His laugh is weak but it is a laugh none the less. "Ah, I'd expect that from you. And he would never know. After all, he's just watching. He isn't reading, is he?"

"That is the case."

He sighs. "Alright…As absurd as that is, I'll accept that…So then, are you done here?"

"I'm disappointed."

"Hm…?"

Hanyuu's face drew closer to his. She whispered into his ear.

"I was looking forward to being violated."

"Well then it wouldn't be violation then, would it?"

Hanyuu mashed her face against his, continuing the kiss from earlier. There was no real reason for it. Perhaps there was still the lingering visage of Riku Furude within him. Perhaps it was pity for Keiichi, who she had deceived more than any other. This time around, Astaroth was far more inclined to actually finish it.

Once she broke away, she simply took to resting at his side, pulling his tattered body into a sort of embrace.

"Ah…I remember this." Astaroth whispered.

"Indeed. This was how things were before."

"Right…Although as I recall, you wanted to forget about all of it."

"I had an affair with you. Why would I want to remember?"

"I understand…Of course. After all, Ouka had already been born at that point, hadn't she?"

"That was the reason…But…"

Hanyuu felt her legs tighten.

"I want to go back to that. The way things were. Even if just for right now."

"And why would you want to do that?"

"Because our child made something of herself. Because Saya managed to live for the sake of someone else. And so the product of my sin had value after all. And so I'd be willing to sin again."

"I see…Very well then. I will foster your desires once more, Hainiryun."

"That is all I want."

In the end it was only a matter of time before she would revive at the Witch of Theatergoing. But for now she decided that she would honor the existence of Saya – an existence formed from a great sin between a god and a demon king.

It was almost symbolic. Not only had the daughter become something of value but the father had as well. For at one time the demon king was simply a demon king. But now, he was something much more real. He was something far more tangible, and perhaps was something much more likely to brave the whims of fate.

And so Hanyuu accepted that. She accepted him for all that he was, just as she had come to accept Saya.

For he had become the darkness in a human heart. And that darkness was eternal. He, at long last, could finally be set free.

* * *

><p><em>Resolution – The Forgotten Brother<em>

There I was. I was simply lying there, almost completely motionless sans the slightly movements of my chest given how I had to breathe. I was almost unsure as to whether or not I was even still alive or if I was just dreaming. But no, it wasn't the dream of death, I was certainly still alive.

Eventually I find the energy – but more important the courage – to move. I don't want to see her the way she is now. I don't want to see her motionless body. I don't want to see her likely already festering corpse. I don't want to accept her death. But it was necessary. She needed to die. She needed to die so others could live.

Hinamizawa is gone. I watched it burn to the ground quite some time ago – was it a day ago? Or was it perhaps longer than that? I have no perception of time now. I'm just sitting here. I'm sitting here and rotting away. I didn't have any desire to get up and continue living. I already tried that. And look where I ended up.

Shion was dead. Everyone I had ever come to know was either out of my reach or just as dead. I was a phantom in the most literal sense. I had no home, not even a figurative one at this point. I had nothing to keep living for. So I figured if I kept rotting away I would eventually just die. But it didn't seem to be working. I thought people could die if they lose the will to live.

Then maybe I hadn't lost the will to live yet. But what the fuck could I possibly want to do with myself now? I have nothing. Nothing in the slightest. I walked down this path because I needed to set things right. But what now? Hinamizawa went up in flames. I don't even have _that _now. I have nothing left. And so I shouldn't have to live anymore.

Or maybe this is my punishment – to live even though I don't want to?

Wasn't killing someone I loved more than enough of a punishment?

So fuck you, everything. I'm not going to accept that. I'll die whenever I damn well please.

But I suppose that dying here isn't the way I should go.

I stand up. I stand up and the first thing I see is her corpse.

I'm going to kill this for you all right now. She is never going to wake up. She's dead. And that's final. And so I decided that I would have to be the one to bury her.

And so I did. I dug a hole – a hole the size of the hole I buried Rai in. I dug a hole with the same feelings of failure that he had. I tried to do it, after all. I tried to save her. But I couldn't do it. She had to die. But I said I wouldn't accept that. But in the end I had no choice.

I buried her that afternoon with the sun beginning to settle in the west. I buried her and everything that had signified our struggle. I buried it all away, including our weapons. I buried everything, and so I buried away the darkness that had tainted her identity. Shion Sonozaki was finally laid to rest, and she could finally rest in peace.

Did I cry at all during this process? I don't remember. I might have. I probably did. But there's no sense in dwelling on the past anymore. I have to dwell on the present – in other words, how I plan to die. Seppuku is out of the question now since I don't even have a weapon to stab myself with – but more importantly I'm implying that I was ever fit to die that way to begin with.

I decided to wander. I wandered down the hill and across the mostly scorched forest. I had no destination I Mind. In fact, if I could somehow suffer a tragic death out here, everything would work out rather nicely. I continued onward – onward into the burnt remains of the forest.

And all the while I listened to them. The cicadas. Because I could understand them now. I don't know why. Or how for that matter. But I can understand them. I know why they cry. I know for who they cry. And from this point on I'll certainly know when they're about to cry.

They're crying for everyone. Everyone who ever lived. They're crying for the whole damn human race. And I've never considered them anything but annoying. They're crying for us. They feel sympathy for us. At least that's what I got from it all.

I continued into the forest. I kept going, bumping into multiple trees along my path. Each time I secretly hoped that I would get a concussion and somehow die from brain damage. At this point I was just looking for a user-friendly way to die.

But as I stumbled along my path to nowhere in particular, I came across something – or rather, someone.

It took me a few moments to realize that she was there. But she clearly was. One look at her told me all I needed to know.

Her eyes were so vacant- as if she were completely void of all life. They were widened completely and she more or less stared at me like a deer in headlights. She showed no signs of movement but showed no signs of awareness either. She was dressed in that uniform – the St. Lucia's Boarding School uniform. Her hair, her eyes – everything about her told me all that I needed to know. Her blue eyes and her long blond hair – without a doubt. This woman was who I thought she was.

She continued to stare at me. But with a very soft whisper, she spoke.

"Onii…chan?"

That was all I needed to hear before I broke completely.

I don't know if I was just holding it in the whole time. I don't know if it was just buildup from the moment I regained my memories or if it was just because I'd killed someone I loved. Regardless of why it happened, tears streaked across my face.

The girl's face was still rather absent of all expression – but I could spot some tract of concern on her face.

This is what Yomi Sumidera was reduced to – a mere shell of a human whose only trace of her past self resides with her memories of her brother.

And I simply couldn't take it.

I couldn't take any more of this.

"Onii-chan…Why are you crying?" She asks me solemnly.

I can't stop shaking. It's too fucking much. I can't stand it anymore. There was no way I could contain any of this any longer. And so I just kept crying. It was a rather weak moment, but fuck if I cared.

"I'm not your brother." I eventually bring myself to say something to her. "But…He sent me here to save you."

I had to do it. I had to lie to her. I had to do it or else even the small shell would crumple away and die. An incredibly small smile creeps across her otherwise empty expression.

"I'm sorry." I continue. "I'm so sorry."

She doesn't respond at first. But then she suddenly asks me a question.

"You killed him, didn't you?"

I stare at her.

She was spot fucking on. She had somehow managed to hit the nail right on the head.

"It's okay." She smiles with slightly more expression. "You've suffered enough."

I don't respond.

"People…came with me. Are they okay?" She asks. Apparently simply having seen me, a replica of her dead brother, revived some aspect of her personality. I didn't know how long it would last, so I hastily nodded my head. Another lie. In truth, we already knew one of them was dead and the two I'd seen were both likely dead at this point as well.

She smiles again.

"That's good… "

I still can't come up with words to form. I'm afraid I'd expose the truth if I said anything.

"Everyone suffered so much…I think I've suffered enough too." She suddenly speaks.

And in that moment, before I can even react to what she had said, she draws a pocketknife out of her skirt and slits her own throat. She bleeds out in seconds and before my brain can even process it she lies dead on the ground.

Might as well add another person to the death count.

For fuck's sake.

I decide that moving would be against all logical thought.

I can't even believe what just happened.

I've betrayed everyone, haven't I? I couldn't even protect his sister. I never should have come back. I should've just curled up in a hole and died. Because that's what I'm going to do now. Only now there are a few more people that are dead because of me.

I stay there, almost completely motionless. I twitch slightly, but if you were to look at me I would appear to be a lifeless statue.

I hear something other than the cicadas. I hear motion – I hear someone moving.

I slowly turn my head off to the side. I see a man in what appears to be a wheelchair moving through the woods towards me. His hair is oddly grey, although physically he doesn't seem to be very old. His eyes are much older, though – one look at him and I could tell that this man has seen just about everything.

He looks at me and the rest of the scene before him and simply smiles. Not the reaction I would've chosen but hey, to each their own.

"It seems I was a bit late."

I don't make any sort of verbal response.

"In truth, I doubt anyone could have done anything about that girl anyhow."

The voice…It sounds familiar.

I suddenly put two and two together.

"K-One." I mutter.

"Indeed. That's me. But I'd rather you call me by my real name."

"Which is?"

"Keiichi Maebara."

That name. I know that name. I know that name too damn well.

I laugh.

He simply continues staring at me, never making so much as a single sound.

"You know…I wanted to be just like you, once upon a time."

"Really now?" He looked genuinely surprised to hear that.

"I wanted to be someone like you – someone that stood up for what he believed in and for those who were important to him. So much for that, eh?"

This time he laughed. Actually, it was more of a dejected laugh than anything else.

"Ah, I'm not sure who the Keiichi you're talking about is. But I'd be amazed if I could meet him."

I wasn't entirely sure what he was getting at.

"You see, there's a fine line between standing up for what you believe in and _saying _that you'll stand up for what you believe in. When it comes down to it, we almost never deliver. That's how we humans are. I'm no different, honestly."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm a poorer soul than you are, you see."

"How is that even possible?"

He laughs. "You at least looked your beloved in the eye when you killed her. I on the other hand…" He laughs even harder. "I didn't even let her die the way she wanted to."

I stare at him as he continues to make that incredibly dejected laugh. This man was Keiichi Maebara? This man was someone I had believed to be respectable at one point?

"It's funny. You're the first person I've told that little tidbit. It's funny –but I suppose only someone who knew her personally should be allowed to know."

"Who are you talking about?"

"You must know. You were chasing after her shadow because you thought she was your sister."

"Rika Furude….?" Several things clicked all at the same time.

"It's the truth…In the end I suppose I just let too many things go by unnoticed. I let her die, simply because I was too afraid for my own life. Am I terrible enough for you?"

"You…With her? A child?"

"Perception of age didn't matter to her. I for one should have done something. But the drink was too strong and I simply desired. Nothing more."

"And what about you killing her? If you loved her then why did you kill her?"

"To be precise I didn't kill her with my own two hands. I let her die. I let her die the one way she didn't want to die – at the hands of one of her closest friends. But alas, I was too much of a coward and she was slaughtered with the rest. I should have joined her, but here I am."

"Then who then? Who killed her?"

"Ryuugu Rena. Or rather the shell of Ryuugu Rena. Forced to kill her friends for the sake of her dying family. I'm fairly certain that she was the only one – the only one who never went insane. She was the only one who could make a difference. But she had to kill us. Because if she didn't then she would lose absolutely everything that had been important to her. But she ended up losing everything regardless of what she did."

"What…?"

"No one was there to protect her – no one was there to help her. In the end she must have cried out to me for help, but I never listened. She had no choice but to go at it alone – she was abandoned by everyone else around her. So she was lost and her only means of survival was to kill. Because she was alone."

I knew that name – Rena. I had several fleeting memories about that girl. From what I knew, she was a simple person – she had a strong attraction to cute things and aside from that one incident she never acted out in any sort of way. She was pure hearted and never made any enemies. She was friendly with everyone around her, and most of the children our age had all definitely taken a shine to her.

Someone like that – brought to kill the very people she cared about?

And this man – Keiichi Maebara – was responsible?

But suddenly something came to me. "The syndrome? The curse?"

He shook his head. "If only that were the case. Like it or not, the truth is that she knew very well what she was doing. In the same way that I did."

"Can…Can I really believe what you're saying?" Even I had a hard time believing that someone like the man standing before me could even exist. How could someone with so much sin on their shoulders possibly be able to bring themselves to get up in the morning?

"You can choose what to believe. But in the end the truth is still the truth."

I remain silent.

"So is it terrifying? Having everything taken from you more than once?"

"Is it terrifying? I don't think you're understanding the scale of it all. At least you still have your own identity intact."

"You're implying that I'm Keiichi Maebara? You'd be wrong there."

"Then who _are _you, then?"

He once again emits that dejected sort of laughter. "I'm the End Dreamer. I know when and where everything dies. I am a living testament to the reality that all human beings will ultimately face. And I am about as human as they come."

"As usual, I have no idea what you're saying."

"I don't expect you to. You just have to listen. You don't need to act anymore. You're trying to die, aren't you?"

"And I trust you're going to have some part in that? I mean, why else would _you _of all people be out here?"

"I've been here to see everything end. I was reborn into this world to set things right. And now that I've set Hinamizawa aflame all I must do now is live."

"So you're done repenting? Can you really say that?"

"I will be repenting for as long as I live. I must continue to carry on the will of the people."

"And what exactly does that entail?" I was beginning to lose all interest in whatever it was he was spouting.

"Someone is already going to live for those who died twelve years ago. But there are certain people that I must live for specifically."

"You mean…" I was beginning to understand what he was getting at. Slowly, but I was beginning to get it.

"That's right." He smiles. "I have to live for Shion, for Satoko, for Rena, for Mion, and for Rika. I have to live for my friends, who ultimately died because of my own failures."

I stay silent. I can tell his sentiments are far more serious than I had ever imagined they would be.

"So… I did seek you out, and for a very deliberate reason, at that."

I raise an eyebrow. "And what might that be?"

"You, Satoshi, are free of all sin. You have made amends for the wrongs you have committed."

I laugh. "If only that were true."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Too many people died here because of what I did. I'm guilty of a great many things. My aunt's death being one of the lesser things on my mind." My eyes drift to the dead girl at my feet.

Certainly I was entirely to blame for her death as well. I took her brother from her, just so that I could wander back here. It doesn't matter if he wanted it or not – I didn't really even try to talk him out of it. I could've prevented his death, but no – I let it happen. And in the end I didn't even achieve anything. I never needed to know the truth. I just wanted to, and my curiosity caused all of this to happen. If not for me, Hinamizawa would've just remained a bitter, but still relatively sealed memory. It may be gone now, but in the end the world will just make another one before too much time has passed.

I achieved nothing. I learned the truth at the expense of so many lives. The truth was never worth that price. Never. But that didn't stop me. Because I had nothing to live for but that truth. That, deep down, is the reason why I want to end everything right here.

"Then what do you intend to do? Certainly death cannot be the answer."

"There's nothing more that I'm capable of. I'll just die the way I am now. I don't care if I rot in hell forever or not. There's no meaning to being here."

"So you will simply die with the regrets of so many people hanging around you? I suppose you weren't around for the disaster itself, but what you're trying to do is a bit counterintuitive."

"What?"

"You don't understand yet? After all you've been through? Regrets were what killed the villagers to begin with. You need to resolve what is left unresolved. Or else like the butterfly effect entails the tragedy will just keep spreading."

From the nature of regrets to apparently butterflies – Keiichi was a man of all sorts of knowledge. I had an idea of what he was saying, although if I tried to make sense of the rest of it I'd probably just confuse myself even further.

But it made sense to a degree. The disaster had happened twelve years ago, and since everything it left behind remained unresolved, even more tragedy occurred twelve years later. If the issues left behind by this incident remained unresolved, more tragedy would happen in the future.

It had to stop now. Everything needed to end, and I realized that I was one of the few people who could make it happen.

"Then what would you have me do?"

"You don't know how to solve the problems of all those that are around you?"

"No, I don't." My self loathing smile dissipated entirely. "If I did, then I wouldn't still be here."

He stretches out his arm. I look at him rather dubiously.

"Then we'll do it together, then."

"What?"

"We will resolve everything ourselves. Come with me – you and I will make amends with all of those who have died. That way both of us can die without leaving anything behind."

"Why would you help me?"

"Because I must make amends for your sister's death. That is where I begin. I start living now – and this is how I will begin."

It suddenly hit me. He was, to a technical degree, responsible for my sister's death. I didn't fully understand it – Satoko was a distant memory. I didn't feel the attachment to her that the old Satoshi did. But this was true – he had to make amends with the old me, as well.

"What would you have me do? And what are you here to do?" I asked him.

"At this point, I am an incredibly rich man. But that is only because I used blackmail to undermine some fairly powerful people. I need protection, and as it stands I have very little. Defend me, and I will make amends for both your sins and what remains of mine."

He was offering a position that I would doubtlessly be proficient at. I could only kill things – that was my only strength. And by doing this, I could ensure that everything left undone would be resolved. I would pull my own weight, certainly, but abandoning this shell of Keiichi Maebara, or even outright killing him here –

I wonder – would Satoko truly want that? Would_ any_ of them truly want that?

I remembered something from just a short while ago – Shion had told me that things weren't his fault and that _she _was the one to blame for how things went between them.

And even further, even if he was a coward who had let his friends die, I couldn't help but recall the picture that Ikuko showed me so long ago.

That image of all of them – certainly, Keiichi had some merit if he were to be part of a group of such close people. There must have been a reason that they chose him. There must be a reason why he was spared and the others weren't.

"…Very well, I'll accept that."

He smiles.

"But on one condition."

"What might that be?"

"You are still to blame for what happened to them, correct?"

"Yes. I am the one to blame."

"Then you will die the same way that they died. You may live, but the day you die, you won't be allowed to die a peaceful death. I will be the one to do it – I will kill you on your deathbed, if need be. That is my only requirement."

"That sounds fair enough."

His hand did not move. It seemed he still wanted me to grasp it. I complied after much deliberation.

"Then, Keiichi Maebara, from now on I will fight for you."

He nods his head.

"Then let us begin. Our path to ruin awaits us, but first we must make amends for these people."

* * *

><p><em>Resolution – Only a Delusion<em>

Ten days later. I can only recall that because I've been assimilated back into standard society. Or rather, I've taken the first step – in other words, getting a calendar and figuring out what a day actually is and adjusting accordingly.

I can remember that day so clearly – the last day I spent in that village before I was finally rescued. Everything that happened from…

From…

From god knows when to god knows when. Let's just put it that way.

I was rescued. I was rescued and…she wasn't.

I didn't know how I had passed out…she…had already died at that point and I was doing _something_, although my biological father was already dead and I was…I was panicking, I suppose?

Anyhow, I ended up waking up next to this crazy guy in a lab coat. I almost thought he was Irie for a moment, but eventually I found out that I had been saved. But the other thing apparent from the moment I regained consciousness was the burning village. I didn't hear anything about that during the briefing for the mission. I assumed something else had happened entirely. I didn't question it. Hinamizawa was gone for good, and I figured it was for the best that it ended that way.

Afterward, I was rushed to a hospital. It was one relatively close by. I heard the nurses talking about my condition, but what was a bit odd was that they weren't working on anyone else. I was the only one. It was a bit odd, and so I decided to ask them what had happened.

It turned out that their story and mine were a bit different. Their story was all about my group of friends. Apparently on the record we had been kidnapped and driven out to where Hinamizawa was, and then in a freak forest fire everyone ended up dying, excluding me.

I had to ask if they found any proof that they were all dead. But in the end it turned out that the only body they could find was Harumi's body. I knew that Naoto-senpai was dead because…she…told me, but in a matter of time Yomi would be declared dead and she would doubtlessly go missing forever, along with senpai's body.

I was the only one. I was the only one who had made it out.

I don't remember how long I ended up crying for. It all happened before I could recall what hours and days were.

Eventually my traumatized condition alleviated itself to the point where I was discharged from the hospital. I was returned to my parents, both of which had apparently come all this way just for me.

They were so relieved to see me unharmed. I almost treated them like my parents for one in my life. But then I took one look at my father.

And then I remembered. I remembered what Irie Kyosuke, my real father, had said.

I waited until I was able to talk to him alone, and then the ever stoic Yu Narukami finally caved and told his adopted daughter everything.

I was apparently the product of Irie Kyosuke and some woman whose name my father had never fully ascertained. It had happened many years ago, but long enough before the Hinamizawa Disaster that I didn't get swept up in it. Irie offered me to my father, who apparently could not have children of his own, as he no longer wanted anything to do with me. But it didn't end there – apparently Irie had trouble getting him to take me, and so he then offered him a position in the Tokyo Company, which my father then took with open arms.

He eventually abandoned the Tokyo Company, having figured out that the company was knee deep in debt and had been struggling to survive off of fraud and outright robbery. But he was still stuck with me. Having been tricked, he saw me as a symbol of great humiliation. That was why he never seemed to give a damn about me. Of course I was still at a loss as to why I didn't remember any of this stuff, since I was probably around three when it happened, but in the end I just ended up dismissing it. It only made my head hurt when I tried to think about it.

Of course at this point he was apologizing like crazy. But I didn't care for a single word of it. I decided not to tell him Irie's half of the story, nor did I care for it. He did, however, know more than the general public likely ever would about what had happened in the village, but I doubted he would ever speak of it, for fear of losing control over me entirely. He offered to send me back to St. Lucia's despite all that had happened, and apparently he had managed to sue the school under all sorts of pretenses and so no future 'incident' would happen ever again.

I never told anyone a single word about anything else that happened in that village not about…her… or anything else. Not about Satoshi, not about the bloody ritual that went on – nothing. I said nothing, and I conveniently lied to the investigators to the best of my ability. The so called kidnapping went unresolved, and Hinamizawa itself was never truly linked to the incident. Instead, the incident was linked with the murders of the other set of Highschool students, primarily consisting of Harumi's sister and Satoshi. They assumed the culprit was the same for both, since I suppose Satoshi managed to worm his way out of the picture, and the case went unsolved.

All I knew was that all of my friends were dead and I had a very bleak life to return to. I didn't even have…her… with me at this point. And I never thought that would ever happen. I'm still sort of reeling over from losing…her…Despite everything that has happened since.

And so I returned to St. Lucia's for a final year, disregarding everything and everyone around me. During my first few days back I was given strange looks and whispers. Apparently the entire school was alienating me without even trying. I assumed they all felt sorry for me, but then again that might not even have been the case. I'm fairly certain many of them were more enraged that I had been the one to live and not any of the others.

I returned to that existence, which was now even tenser than it had been in the past. And in the end I was left alone, to fend for myself…without even…her…to…

Without…her…Without…her…I'm nothing.

Then why, if…she…was so important to me…

Then why? Why the hell can't I remember her name?

There's this huge hole…This huge hole in my memory. But it was all so clear before – I could even remember some of the things from when we were kids –

Or perhaps none of that was real? Maybe I had just made it all up?

That wasn't possible. She couldn't just be a delusion. I…I could touch her. I knew she was there. Other people even interacted with her. So then why? Why can't I even remember her name? I can barely remember what she looked like now.

She was my little sister, wasn't she? I loved her. I loved her so much, so then why can't I even remember her name?

Wait, but was it my little sister? Or my little brother?

Why…? Why can't I remember?

Each day, as I struggle to remember, I feel more and more empty inside. That person – that person who I felt so strongly for – were they even real to begin with? Or were they just a dream? Was I out in that forest alone? Did I create a fake person to cope with the solitude?

Even now, I can't understand it. I feel so torn. It's only a matter of time before the stress gets to me.

Night after night I try to remember. I try to remember but I just can't. I never sleep. I just stay awake and I keep trying to remember. I feel sorry for whoever my roommate is, given how I end up talking to myself night after night.

There's this large hole in my memory. I need to fill it. I need to remember. But it's so hard. But I feel so terrible for admitting that.

This has been my pattern, for these ten days.

This morning shouldn't be any different.

But as I head towards my first class, ignoring the awkward stares that I receive now primarily for my very dark and sickly appearance, I'm suddenly stopped by a student.

"Uh, Yoko-senpai, I was just wondering…Um, do you have a boyfriend? With blonde hair?" I wasn't sure why I was being asked such a specific question.

"…No. What gave you that idea?"

"Well, I saw someone around your age in the mailroom. He put something in your mailbox, but before I could ask about it he ran off…I would go check on it if I were you."

I nod my head. I don't even mutter a thank you, and so the student nervously runs off. I decide to put going to the mailroom on hold until I make it back to the dorm that afternoon.

School was uninteresting. Nothing of note happened. So I'm going to skip talking about it.

I ended up heading to the mailroom shortly after lunch. I was allowed to rest for the afternoon until my condition notably improved. Which it wouldn't, at least not anytime soon. The mailroom was just as I had remembered it, although I was more concerned with what could have made its way into my mailbox.

Someone rather suspicious looking with blonde hair had apparently put something inside it.

I only knew one guy who had blonde hair. So I made an assumption that it was Satoshi who had been here. I was curious, but also a bit afraid.

In all honesty, I just wanted all of this Hinamizawa business to be over. But I supposed that whatever it was, I couldn't put it off for very long.

I sighed and opened the box. Inside was a small package that was labeled with nothing but a short message.

'Don't open in public'

I decide to heed that warning and head straight back to the dorm. Whatever was inside was certainly very important.

The dormitory is as empty as it always is. My roommate is apparently still out, and without taking the time to confirm that I open the box. The box was heavily wrapped, and beneath the first layer were several more. Whatever was in here must have been particularly fragile.

After dealing with the seals, I opened the smaller package inside the larger one.

Inside it was something very familiar to me.

It was a…A dagger? A knife? Something shaped like a knife?

I suddenly remembered.

This was what that person pointed at me the moment we met. How could I have hallucinated that? They must have been real. I had some physical proof of that.

But then why couldn't I remember any of it? Did I just hallucinate someone swinging this around after all? Was that even possible?

"Why…? Why can't I…Even with this in front of me…How the hell am I still so unsure…?"

I fall back onto my bed. Only to find out that I had not and instead I had landed on my roommate's bed, which was currently occupied by none other than my roommate.

I squeak slightly, but looking down I am met with a rather dull, but very familiar, expression.

That's right. All this time I was so focused on my lost memories that I neglected to notice that Ange was here.

"…Sorry." I mutter, getting off of her.

"Don't worry about it." She gives a rather typical answer.

I then walk off, but before I can get very far Ange speaks once again.

"Wait. You've been saying things… You aren't getting any sleep. You need to start taking care of yourself." This was rather odd – it was a role reversal. Usually I was the one telling Ange to take care of herself. It seemed that I was more of a wreck than I had realized.

"Oh, that's right. Sorry, I must've kept you awake an awful lot, huh?"

"You're afraid of something?"

"I'm…I'm just afraid I won't ever remember."

"That person who was important to you?"

"Yeah…"

"Think of it like this." Ange suddenly gets out of bed and walks over to me, taking the dagger like weapon in hand.

I give her a rather strange look, not knowing what she was planning.

"You said that person had this with them, right?"

"Yeah."

"Then that's all there is to it. They were real, right?"

"But then why can't I…"

"You're saying that because they weren't real that you forgot about them? But just because you think they were a delusion, that doesn't mean that they _were_, right?"

I'm slightly dumbfounded. She certainly had a point. She had a rather roundabout way of saying it, but her logic was sound. It was incredibly simple as well – yet I couldn't come to such a basic conclusion because of how scared I was.

I had physical proof that my so called delusions were real. Ange confirmed it all for me. There could be any number of reasons as for why I forgot who that person was. But in the end I knew that they were real, simply because out of the two possibilities this one was the most likely. Even if my memories vanished in a way so akin to a fleeting dream, there was no way to say with certainty that the two were the same.

I just nod my head, accepting her words.

"…I'd do more for you, but sadly I've been excommunicated." She smiles somewhat awkwardly. "But you get it, right?"

Disregarding her first statement, I nod my head. I smile at her.

"Thanks, Ange. I'm sorry for all of the trouble."

"It's not a problem…" She trails off before returning to bed. She apparently had been half asleep through the bulk of that speech of hers, considering how she was out cold in a matter of moments. She did seem slightly out of character there for a moment. Her usual stoic expression was a bit dazed. It was actually sort of funny.

It's strange. The old me never would have thought that way. I would've probably been mad at her over some really obscure thing like how messy her hair was or something like that.

I decide that I should get to sleep while in a good mood. I desperately needed it. And in the end it turned out that Ange had managed to give me all of the relief I needed.

I had to thank her in a much more efficient way. But I could work on that tomorrow. I go to sleep and find myself strangely at ease. I try to put the void in my mind at ease. I knew that person was real. That was good enough for right now. I had to start watching myself, like Ange had said.

It may come to the point when I forget about that person entirely. But as long as that knife was there, and as long as I could still recall what it meant, I would never again doubt that person. In the end that was how things were going to end up. But at least I can rest easily, knowing that person was never a delusion.

I have an incredibly vivid dream of this place I have never seen before. It is some sort of a garden – a large garden coated to the brim with flowers, with no end in sight.

Standing before me is a woman in an incredibly elegant dress. Her flowing blonde hair and radiant blue eyes makes her seem like something out of a painting.

She greeted me with a soft smile.

I have no idea who this woman is, or what to say to her. But she speaks moments before I can even come up with some sort of a reaction.

"It seems you've wandered here, of all places. How curious…"

"Where is this?" Since I didn't have to start the conversation, I immediately threw out my first question.

"Just know that you're safe here. That's all that matters in the end, right?"

"Why am I here?"

"If I had to guess, I would say it's because of your friend."

"You mean…Ange?"

"Right. By helping you reach the nature of your dilemma and helping you resolve it, she must have let you come here. Separated as she may be, there's no doubt that she's _his _sister." She smiles once again.

"But…Isn't this just a dream?"

"Make of it what you will, but since you're here, I suppose I could help solve your problem myself."

I wasn't entirely sure what this elegant woman was getting at, but I couldn't detect a single hint of malice.

I suddenly let something slip out of my mouth that I didn't intend to let slip.

"Are you…An angel?"

Her eyes widen slightly, and in another instant she suddenly lets out a loud and seemingly uncharacteristic cackle.

"An angel? I'm the furthest thing from an angel, dear."

I feel a tad bit nervous. Her personality seemed to change so drastically and so quickly.

"Anyhow, enough chatter. I'm going to help you now."

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" I was a bit more concerned now than I was a few moments ago. That cackle changed my entire opinion of this woman.

"It's simple. But first I need you to close your eyes."

I slowly do as she requested, half expecting her to do something to me while my eyes are shut. But she doesn't and so I relax slightly.

"This friend of yours. What _can _you remember about them?"

So that was what this was about.

What did I remember? All kinds of things.

"I…I remember being around them a lot when I was really young. I was very lonely back then. I never could make friends at my age, and my parents…Well, my real parents, never so much as batted an eyelash at me. I can't really remember much but…Suddenly, that person was there, and I had someone around me for a long time. And then, more recently…We were very close. We survived together. And we promised each other that the other would survive. It was that sort of a bond…"

"Very well then…."

I am unable to see what she was doing, but eventually the silence breaks.

"Come now…Try to remember the form you once had. Even if only your memory remains, memory is all that is necessary…"

The silence continues. But as it does –

"…There. Now, can you tell me? Can you tell me your friend's name?"

My eyes shoot open, and tears streak down both of them.

"Then tell me. What is your friend's name?"

I whisper a name. A name that I've definitely never heard before or said before but just felt so familiar, as if I had said it a thousand times. A name that held a strong value for me.

That name. That name must have been that person's name.

Was I right?

Was that your name?

Saya?

* * *

><p><em>Resolution – When Only Dark Remains<em>

There was nothing. Nothing as far as the eye could see. There wasn't anything but the endless black void that was my world. There was simply nothing else here. I was alone and it was starting to wear on my mind. I had been here alone for seemingly an eternity. Surely, I must have died, and surely I must have been in some sort of hell.

I couldn't see anything. There was nothing for me to even confirm that I was anywhere at all. I was alone, after all, but in the end I determined that it wasn't the fact that I was alone that _she _wasn't there with me. Yoko – the only person in the world that hadn't betrayed me. The only person in the world who I ever wanted to be with.

Yoko wasn't here. That was why I was in such agony. And I would never see her again.

I couldn't even understand how it had all happened – but I could remember everything from the moment I saw her. I knew who I was but more importantly who she was. Therefore, I am only one who can detail Yoko's earlier years.

It was all so complicated – Irie had attempted to put more work into crafting me, his perfect test subject. He wanted me to be able to coexist with human beings and understand and be capable of developing human bonds before I would ultimately be used for some deranged purpose – likely as a biological weapon of some sort. In the end I found out exactly what I was long before Irie ever assumed I had.

I would rather have been the first one to tell you this, although I'm sure that isn't the case anymore. I'm simply not real, at least not from a human perspective. I'm a creature that lives outside the realm of cause and effect. There was never anything that explicitly gave birth to me. I simply started existing, and only those who had that vile disease could ascertain my existence. Irie could interact with me, and so by utilizing my existence as something outside of cause and effect he managed to create a scenario where the Hinamizawa Syndrome could be analyzed in detail. I was more or less a flower that gave off that dangerous pollen. I was the source of the syndrome – or at least the more drastic variations of it that similarly had no concept of cause or effect. This is more or less another aspect of that truth – a truth that cannot be ascertained by mortals. A truth that has to be hidden solely for the fact of maintaining the order in existence.

I can't explain it in any other way. Those who are like me simply can't exist. Because if we did then humans wouldn't be able to function in their world the way they do. If angels and demons were to exist for them, humans would be face with a truth that they simply wouldn't be able to handle. Humans suppressed our existence to adjust to their own world. But that is simply how things are.

I grew up that way. I grew up in solitude. In many instances I escaped from the lab and wandered around the village. I lived a life I never wanted to live. I would rather have just died at that point. But apparently, while I kept everything to myself, it seemed that Irie had somehow caught wind of my insecurities and weaknesses.

Then I met her – Yoko was a miracle. She was almost like me, but only in the sense that she could see me without being infected. She was only three or four at the time, but I can clearly remember every single day of the time I spent with her. Yoko gave me some tangibility. But eventually I lost even that. Perhaps it was because she was becoming more and more aware of how her father disliked her. But in the end, her memory seemed to fade away with time – or more precisely she was forced to forget through the wonders of neural science.

That was why she didn't remember me. She was forced to forget. At least that was what I had decided was the truth.

Regardless, the rest of our interaction is history. And in the end I died for her, so perhaps it was all worth something in the end.

But that doesn't change how terrifying it is to exist here, in a world where she doesn't.

I spent an endless amount of time in this empty place. So for continuity's sake I will simply say that I spent roughly two thousand years in that cold and dark abyss before something finally changed.

Out of seemingly nowhere another person appears in the abyss with me. I take one look at her and I can assign her face to a name.

She was Rika Furude. But for some strange reason, she was dressed in an old styled European dress. It seemed to suit her to a certain degree, but I still had no idea why a shrine maiden would be wearing something like that.

At first, having been alone for two thousand years, I assume that she is a hallucination. I have no idea exactly where she came from, but it seemed that she was most certainly there. She didn't do much at first. She just seemed to stare at me for quite some time with her empty purple eyes and with an ever stoic expression. She was apparently analyzing me, although no expression of thought ever flashed across her features.

I almost tried to speak to her, but for some reason no words wanted to come out of my mouth. I was a bit mesmerized – she had appeared so suddenly and didn't seem to be making any sort of movement whatsoever. I almost went back to thinking she was some sort of hallucination.

I move to turn away from her. I figured I would wander off into the distance and come back later once she offered some sort of reaction.

"Hey, where are you going?" She speaks rather suddenly. I turn to face her to find that same look. It was as if she hadn't said anything at all and as if I had just been hearing things.

"…I wasn't really going anywhere."

"Then why did you turn away from me?" This time I saw her mouth move and her face adjust with it. She was certainly speaking to me.

"I…Well I wasn't sure what to make of you."

She then smirks. That stoic expression changed into a rather human looking one.

"You wouldn't be the first, that's for sure." After that, she went back to staring at me.

"So…Um…What do you want?" I asked a few moments later.

"What do I want? That's a bit blunt, coming from the daughter of the most exalted AuAurora, Pro Game Master Witch of Theatergoing and all that other title crap."

"Um…I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

She sighs. "Of course you don't. Otherwise you've gotten out of here on your own."

"What do you mean?"

"This place is like a prison cell with a ring of keys left inside. You can freely leave it whenever you feel like, but unless you know which key opens the door you can't really go anywhere. Only in your situation you've got about five thousand keys to go through. Not my best analogy but you can settle for it. I haven't had a drop of tea in god knows how long."

I didn't really have a response for her.

"Basically, unless you know how to get out of here you simply can't do it. You don't have the capacity to leave a fragment on your own and I doubt you ever will. So get comfortable. You'll be in here for at least another ten thousand years before someone feels sorry for you and lets you out."

"But…Can't you let me out? You got in here, right?"

"I can let you out. I won't, however. I'd find it a lot more entertaining to watch you go insane."

"…You're a tad different from the Rika I've familiarized myself with."

She sighs again. "Ah, right. You don't know a damn thing, do you? Oh well, I suppose it can't be helped." Her head droops in defeat.

"First off, my name isn't Rika. I've got nothing to do with her. Or maybe I do but…Eh, I'm not going to get into it. Second of all…"

She shifts her head up slightly and stares at me with eyes that had an entirely different sort of expression about them.

"I do believe you insulted me just now. That gives me even more reason to screw around with you." The Rika-like person steps toward me, with that same vacant expression on her face. But just as she gets close enough that she becomes too close for comfort her face breaks out into a wicked smile, followed by a deteriorated laugh.

She grabs me by the neck and hoists me into the air. I'm not entirely sure how someone so visually short can manage such a thing, but more importantly it seems like she was planning on choking me to death. Her hand tightens to the point where my breath flow stops completely.

"I wonder. Would you die if I kept holding you like this? Or are you just as immortal as _she _is?"

She continues choking me but just as suddenly as she had started she eventually lets go. I drop to the ground and gasp for air but as I do so she strikes me across the face.

"You sicken me. Do you know why?"

I don't offer any sort of reaction. She kicks me in the stomach as a result. After I reel back from it I shake my head.

"Of course you don't. Because you don't know a single thing about the world around you. All you seem to care about is that infernal child."

She walks over to me once again and I can almost telegraph her vicious stomp on my head. My face crashes into the faceless ground beneath me, although the pain doesn't even remotely stop there. She continues to bash my face into the ground with the heel of her shoe.

"You know, I'm beginning to wonder. I'm sure you have some higher purpose. But I wonder if it would even matter if I just got rid of you right now. Maybe AuAurora would come running to your side. Perhaps I should test that."

I attempt to make some sort of noise. I refuse to take more of this physical abuse without knowing her reasons. All that comes out is a rather loud grunt.

And in that instant the stomping ceases. I am allowed an extended period of time to catch my breath. "What? Are you confused? Do you need more handholding? I suppose you might, given how useless you are. You wouldn't even make for good furniture, would you?"

"Tell me…" I hoarsely speak. "Who are you…?"

"Your first question is who I am? Perhaps you have better manners than I thought. You can simply call me Bernkastel. Or maybe I should make you call me Bernkastel-sama or something of the like."

"Why are you…here?"

"I came here solely to screw around with you. Because I hate you so much."

"Why…?"

"Because one look at you reminds me of something horrible. Maybe if I etch out that pretty face of yours it'll calm me down. Or maybe I need to get rid of the hair instead…? So many options. But funnily enough I have the time to test _all_ of them."

"No….Don't…" I was already at the point where I wanted to beg her to stop. I was far weaker here in this world than I was back in the forest, fighting for my life. It seemed the years I spent in solitude had weakened me in all aspects and regards. It was a horrifying situation to find yourself in, but alas here I was.

"Beg all you like." She then grabs a sizable chunk of my hair, somewhere close to the roots. She plans to pull it – that was about as much I knew. "I'm not going to spare you a single moment of the pain."

She then promptly begins to pull. The pain is tremendous. But then again I figured that this would be far from the worst of it.

"Would you like to know something?" She smiles once again with that wicked smile of hers. "There's something I can tell you…About that girl you care so much about."

She was talking about Yoko. What could she possibly tell me about her? There was no way she could have done anything to her – she was like me, and she was confined to a dimension like this one as well. But I had a strange feeling that whatever she was about to say wouldn't settle well with me.

But what it actually was – I would've rather died at that very moment than have heard what she said.

"I figured I would tell you how she's been doing. Since the moment she left the village she's driven herself insane. And you know why? Because she forgot about you."

"She…Forgot…" She had to be lying.

"She forgot about you. She woke up and she couldn't remember anything – about the time you two spent living and dying in the forest, about how you saved her and she saved you – none of it stuck. Because _you aren't real_."

Because I wasn't real?

Right. Because I wasn't real. I couldn't exist in a world like that. So while I may exist as I am it's just as possible that I didn't at all. The man on that phone made me realize that rather abruptly.

She forgot about me. She forgot all about me.

"But she didn't forget completely…Actually, she remembers quite a bit."

I didn't understand her words.

"It's just that she can't associate _you_ with _anything_. She remembers. But she can't remember a single thing about you. What you look like, what your name is, not even your gender. And she drove herself crazy because of it."

"She…"

"She tried to go back to her normal life. But her memories of _you_ drove her insane. She's been suffering. Because of you."

"Because of…No, that isn't…"

"It's as true as can be…But I must admit that she has since recovered, thanks to a certain factor I hadn't seen coming...But she'll never be able to remember your name or your face. You will always be that hole in her memory. And you know what the kicker is?"

What else could she possibly say that could round out her so called revelation?

She gave one final pull on my hair and whatever she had grabbed onto was uprooted in that instant. She then bent down over me and whispered something sinister into my ear.

"She isn't real either."

I didn't understand. Not at first.

"She's about as fake as you are."

"What do you…"

"What you experienced was the events of a fragment. A temporary world, specifically one created so the witch who created you could recover. Why she even made you is beyond me, but regardless that fragment was a simulation, and nothing but. And I'm afraid that _nothing_ you experienced can ever happen in any other fragment."

I wasn't sure how to register that information.

I was an illusion myself, but according to this Bernkastel person I had some tangibility after all –

But Yoko? She wasn't real? She was a figment of someone's imagination? How was that even possible? It had to be a lie. It had to be some sort of lie crafted by this person.

"Still don't believe me?" Bernkastel sneers as she seemingly reads my mind. "I'm going to show you something; a certain brand of truth – it's called red truth, which in all circumstances is absolutely true. If it isn't true I simply can't say it in red. Do you understand?"

Without even waiting for an answer she continues.

"I'll confirm it for you right here and now. In fact, I'll confirm it all for you, right now. **Outside of the User-Defined Fragment, Yoko Narukami does not exist. Yoko Narukami will never remember you. She will never remember what you looked like, what your name was or anything about you. You will never be remembered by anyone inside **or outside of –"

She suddenly chokes on her words. A small amount of blood spats from her mouth and onto the transparent floor beneath her.

"Ah… I forgot. You followed me here, didn't you…?" She seemed to be speaking to no one in particular. "And here I thought it would be easy for you. You could just erase her from that disk of yours and be done with it."

She looks toward the sky.

"So what are you waiting for? Show yourself already. You don't want to anger me so soon after we made up, AuAurora."

In that instant a figure of a rather elegant looking woman seemingly appears out of nowhere a few feet above her, suspended in the air. The long pink kimono and the green sash slung over her shoulder gave the woman a rather important sort of look to her.

"I'm a tad disappointed, Bernkastel."

"How so? Oh, right. You feel attached to this thing. What, did getting screwed by this abomination's father make you soft all of a sudden?"

"You should know by now that beating my extension into submission would get you nowhere."

"I don't think I need to explain to you how I don't give a damn."

"But I think you need to explain to _her _why you don't give a damn. Or perhaps I need to anyway."

"It's your kid. You deal with her. Unless you want to see me beat her up some more."

"That will be unnecessary."

The woman descended from the sky and landed somewhere to my left. Bernkastel continued to gaze at me with disgust of the highest caliber as she stepped a few paces backward. But my focus was on this new woman standing before me. As I looked into her eyes I felt something incredibly strange. It was as if I was

"…Looking into a mirror."

I gasp. The woman laughs ever so quietly. By some sort of magic or something of the like she could both read my mind and

"…Finish my sentences. Which is fairly easy, considering how I'm making them up myself as I go along."

"…Who are you?"

"You _still_ don't have it figured out yet?" Bernkastel scoffed. "You're slow too. Who'd have thought."

"Simply put, you already know who I am." The woman said with a bit of a sigh. I was fairly certain this was that 'AuAurora' person that Bernkastel had mentioned a few moments ago, but I couldn't be entirely sure of what her name was without asking. But it seemed this woman wanted me to come to the right conclusion without asking any questions.

But strangely enough, I had a feeling that there was a bit more to her than that. Her gaze was almost identical to my own, and her facial features seemed something similar to my own. I then came to the most reasonable conclusion.

"…Mother?"

Bernkastel claps somewhat sarcastically.

"That's about as close as you can get, in human terms." The woman smiles. "It's more accurate to say that you and I are one and the same."

"_Were _one and the same. But I'm beginning to wonder." Bernkastel interrupted.

"One and the same?"

"Yes. I created you from myself – specifically I made you from the aspects of myself that seemed the most human."

"But why?"

"Because…I've done something terrible. And various people, Bernkastel included, were harmed by what I did. And so I had to prevent myself from ever doing it again. So I removed everything that made me the most human like and you were built from it."

I nervously glanced at Bernkastel who still had her ice cold stare centered entirely on me. I had a slight idea now as to why she hated me so irrationally. It was in fact a completely rational hatred. I was the embodiment of something that had caused her pain.

"I had to recover myself, having nearly died entirely quite some time ago. In the process of recovery I created a small fragment where a unique set of events would unfold. I allowed you to live in such a place, so that you might be able to become something even remotely human while you were there. I succeeded to a large degree, but it would seem that you've become trapped here."

"So then…You created everything that was in that fragment?"

"I allowed the fragment to unfold in its own way. I simply made it so something entirely unique and impossible would occur. You were planted there myself and you grew into something I almost thought wasn't possible. Your time was cut short, but I now acknowledge your worth."

"But then…Everything wasn't real?"

"It was all fake from a certain standpoint. But you were part of that world. So you can accept that world as the truth if you would like to."

"But…I'd be forgotten if I did that." And I already knew it was impossible to expect anything similar in any other world. Bernkastel had confirmed for me that Yoko didn't exist anywhere else. So I was essentially trapped.

"Forgotten or not, you lived, did you not? That was already much more than what you were intended for."

I didn't like that idea. I wanted to believe that I had some serious worth. But in the end it seemed like there was nothing different between me and the dust in the air. I had managed to live and die for the sake of someone else, but apparently that still wasn't enough.

"So am I to be discarded? Much like you already claim to have done?"

"That's what I was thinking." Bernkastel chimes in. "After all, no one could ever want anything to do with an abomination like you."

Bernkastel stretches her left arm as if to grab at something, and then in a single instant a long black scythe appears out of thin air and falls into her grasp. The blade is long and black, and without a doubt if it came anywhere near me I would be finished. Bernkastel steps forward, clearly already prepared to kill me. She was likely prepared to do that since she first arrived here.

She lashes out at me. My arm swings upward in a sort of defensive motion but it is cut open rather quickly and blood spills. My vision becomes incredibly red and I try to back away with a scream.

Another slash. My stomach splits open and some sort of intestine spills out with all of the blood. That's right. I was apparently irrationally afraid of blood at some point. But I've never seen so much blood before in my life. Not even back then…

Another slash and my other arm is completely gone.

There's so much blood. There's so much pain. I can't stand it anymore. I'm going to collapse.

Why, why is there so much blood?

I let out a high pitched scream as I slump over, into the blood of my own blood. I'm about to die and I know it. Blood starts to spew from my mouth and my esophagus becomes completely clogged with the copper tasting material.

The copper taste. That taste that stuck out more than anything else I had ever eaten before. My entire mouth was filled to the brim with it. I would never forget this intense taste. In fact, at this point if I even lived long enough to taste something else it would probably taste like copper.

There was just so much of it. I couldn't stand it anymore. There was no way she could keep torturing me like this. But she could. She was just waiting for me to bleed out. I take one good look at her and all I see is her twisted smile. That was all I cared about.

I kept thrashing about, trying to find some way to breathe.

But then suddenly I'm no longer thrashing about on the floor. I still have the memory and physical memory of what it all felt like, but I no longer had any gashes or missing limbs at all and I'm standing up, just as I had been moments before any of that had happened. Bernkastel shoots the woman next to her a glare. Apparently she had done something that had reversed the entire ordeal. It had never happened, essentially.

"Wait." The woman speaks. A bit late for that, if I do say so myself.

Bernkastel gives her a look of disbelief. "Two hundred thousand years. Two hundred thousand years of that prison are behind you and you're going to let it live? Don't you understand? That thing made you into what you are."

"It's the other way around."

Bernkastel gives her a questioning look.

"I made it into what it is. It's only fair that we let her go."

"Why?"

"It wasn't _her _fault that I gave into my human weakness. She didn't even exist until after the fact. I don't approve of erasing something from existence for something it hasn't done."

"Did you kill your weakness at all?"

"My weakness is standing right in front of us."

"Then why are you hesitating? Do you _want _to screw up again? And drag me back into another Logic Error with you?"

"That won't be the case."

"And how do you know? You gave in once. You can certainly do it again. You have to cut all ties with this part of yourself. Kill her. Do it or else I'll…"

"Or else you'll do what?" The woman's face was still resolute. She didn't seem to want to bend to Bernkastel's will in the slightest.

But then Bernkastel takes the scythe – and points the tip towards her own neck. The woman loses a small portion of her composure.

"Which will it be? Her or me? Which one is more important to you?" Her face was completely stoic.

In a matter of seconds the woman had a response.

"You know you're more valuable to me than anything else."

"Then what will you do?"

"…I'll do as you wish and erase her from my memory. But that is all."

Bernkastel lowers the scythe. "…That shall do." She turns to leave, apparently having gotten everything she wanted out of being here in the first place. "…Don't make me ever have to exploit that weakness ever again. Make sure you do it right."

"Very well."

With that response from the woman, Bernkastel disappeared entirely from that place. In the end it seemed all she wanted to do was ensure that I would suffer.

"Saya." The woman turns towards me. "You are being allowed to live. You can roam that fragment for all eternity. But you will never be seen by anyone ever again, you understand?"

"No one…?"

"No one. But you will be allowed to roam around. You can even find your dear friend if you want. You can spend every day with her if you so choose. But you will never be acknowledged. You'll simply be invisible. It is either that or you simply stay here and fade away with everything else that once populated this place."

I was being given two choices by my other self. Either stay here and die or live forever at Yoko's side, even if she will never notice me?

One would be simply the end of my existence. I would fade away and never return. But the other would allow me to see the person I care about the most again. But in the end that one was more of a living hell than anything else. But I believed that I could endure it.

"I wish to go, then. I want to stay with her, even if we'll never speak again."

"Are you sure? You have to understand that when the time comes for her passing you will still remain in that fragment. You don't have the capacity to leave it, and you never will. Can you really make that decision, knowing that when her life expires you will be truly alone?"

I think hard about what she says. But in the end I came to realization. In that world there are humans – humans that can think for themselves and come to their own conclusions, whether rational or irrational. As long as that was the case…

I smile.

"I won't ever be truly alone."

"How so?"

"The world is filled with rational and irrational possibilities. As long as there are humans in the world that can think for themselves there can be potential for something like me to exist."

"But you've already died once. There's no coming back from…" Her voice trails off. "…But are you willing to spent the thousands of years it is going to take to do something like that?"

"It won't take a thousand years. Because there are places like Hinamizawa all over the world. As long as there are places like that I can still somehow exist. And one day I'll revive in that world, and I'll start everything over."

"But you should know by now that all you can do is wreak havoc. Without that girl that is all the purpose you would have left."

"Then I'll wreak havoc. I'm just going to live. Because that's what Yoko ultimately would want for me, even if she didn't even know a single thing about me. That's just the kind of person she is."

The woman sighs. "…I see you are far more resolute than I gave you credit for… I believe you deserve the third option instead. Well, it's more like a fourth or fifth option. But there is in fact a way that the two of you can see each other again. Of course there are a few strings attached but you'll get the idea in time."

My eyes widen. I somehow know that she's telling the truth. "Whatever it is…I'll do it."

She smiles. "You say that now, but I assure you…Well, I suppose that now I've tempted you there's no going back."

She turns around so she is no longer facing me. "I'd like to introduce you to a concept that is rather familiar to me, but I don't believe you've ever heard of it. This will be all the vengeance that Bernkastel will ever need, but it will also be a rather ironic gift that I will be giving you."

I wasn't sure what she meant by an ironic gift.

"It's almost funny. You are the embodiment of the reason why I ended up the way I did, and now I am about to extract revenge by giving you a parting gift. But we'll see how long you last before you're driven off the deep end…That is, assuming you'll ever truly understand what is going to happen to you."

"I thought you were going to leave me here to die alone."

"Indeed I am. But you'll forget about it in due time."

"And when might that be?"

"Oh, about five seconds from now." The woman said with a smile. I suddenly realized something. Bernkastel wasn't the only one who should have despised me. Shouldn't this woman have as well? Wasn't I the embodiment of her weakness? In that moment she vanished –

And I vanished too.

And I was…

I was… I was somewhere. Somewhere dark. Somewhere I don't think I'd ever been.

I wake in a cold sweat, unlike anything I'd ever felt before. It was simply the most frightening feeling in the world. Had I perhaps been dreaming? Was I trapped in a nightmare for that time? Yes, it was certainly a dream, I know it. But what was it about? I would never know, neither on that morning or any other, why I had woken in a cold sweat.

All I knew was that I knew nothing. I had no idea where I was – or _who_ I was, for that matter. All I knew was that I was trapped in some terrible dream until just this moment- for how long I couldn't say. In the end whether or not it was a nightmare or something more was completely irrelevant.

But the place that I was faced with when I woke – my surrounding area – I would have taken the nightmare over what I saw any day.

A dark room, filled with nothing but skeletal remains. Some were still adorned with small amounts of rotting flesh and most of them were still swarming with flies. I could assume that the decay was rather recent, although the fact that I am here and am still alive could be the reason why the flies have swarmed this place.

But as I mull over this seemingly insignificant detail it all suddenly hits me- what I was actually seeing before my eyes. I suppose it was just the effects of my prolonged state of sleep. I scream as loud as I can, simply from finally registering the reality of the situation.

I then began to see things with more detail, and each one causes me to shiver all the more rapidly.

The remains – they were all corpses. They were corpses that littered nearly the entire floor. The corpses themselves are mostly skeletal at this point but several of them are still rotting away, ripped opened and mauled as if they had been chewed apart by a wolf. I try to ignore the more miniscule skeletal remains, telling myself that they were just from small people, perhaps midgets. I try to focus on something else in the room – anything else.

I can now make out dried blood on the walls and ceiling, while the floor was adorned with what could have been the remnants of someone's intestines. Whoever had done this- why would they have done such a thing? Who on earth would do this to another human being- let alone so many?

I suddenly break down. Some of the blood and the intestines seem fresh. The people who had done this were probably close by. What if they returned to kill me? What if I ended up the same as they had? I frantically scan the room for some way to escape. I see something that appears to be an impression in the wall, different from all the other surfaces.

Of course – I know what that is, it's a door. I can open it and escape! My paranoia slips away for even just a moment as I realize I can break free through the door. I stumble to my feet, only to find that the bottom of my left foot was cut. I almost stumble right back over and into some of the blood on the floor, but I manage to fix my balance in time. I focus my eyesight in the direction of the door as the scent of blood fills my nose and my vision begins to swim.

_Ah, blood…So much blood, there's way too much why is there so much blood why is there all this blood why why why why why-_

* * *

><p><em>Resolution – Decades Later<em>

Morning came. Morning went. Evening came. Evening went.

Morning came. But today was different. Today was remarkably different.

The year was 2036. The location was a relatively well hidden apartment in Shibuya. As far as anyone outside of that apartment knew, there wasn't anything else even remotely remarkable about the place. But then came the residents, who not a single person who lived in the local area even knew the slightest thing about.

The apartment itself was nowhere as unique as the residents, of which there had been only three for about ten of the forty years that they had been occupying that place. Time went by and a fourth member was added to them, but that fourth member eventually grew older and left the place of their own violation.

Today was the third day. The third day of the period of time before that household of three would become a household of two.

It was at long last time. It had been forty long years since that time. Since that time where society nearly was ripped apart at the seams from having been nearly exposed to the hard truth of the world around it. Since that time where two men vowed to repent for their crimes and began their forty year long road to making amends for the damages they had caused.

It had begun with Satoshi's friendly push to Yoko Narukami to start believing in the unrealistic once again. It continued with the sudden reappearance of every single one of the girls that had gone missing on their respective parents' doorsteps, charred or not. It went on into the future, with every possible connection to each individual that had been related to the incident being explored to the most personal degree. It had taken forty years, but further catastrophe had been finally averted, despite how smaller incidents took place along the way.

They were free. They were free of everything, after having dedicated their lives to making amends. There was nothing further that they could do aside from simply living. And now it was time. It was time for Keiichi Maebara to uphold his end of the deal.

Natsumi entered the room from the kitchen, which had been directly connected to Keiichi's current resting place. They had situated a bed in the makeshift living room so he could at least watch television while waiting for his time to come. She gazed upon him, lying face up on the rather flimsy bed. Satoshi sat at his side with his sword at the ready. Only three days ago had they received the news – Keiichi was suffering from some form of terminal cancer, and it seemed that it had developed to the phase where he had less than a week to live.

She had called her child – the daughter that she had with Keiichi, who was now somewhere in her twenties. But it seemed that the daughter was alienated enough from the family that she had no interest in watching her neglectful father die. In truth, Keiichi was never truly neglectful. He simply had to do his job. It was his life's mission to make amends for that disaster, and so he simply never had the opportunity to pay attention to her. Natsumi was a respectable enough mother, given how she was more or less assigned the role of being a mother. Satoshi and Keiichi would carry out their plan, and Natsumi would stay behind and be the mother for her child.

Keiichi never blamed his daughter for despising him. She would never understand the role that he played and there would be no way to truly illustrate for her just what had happened back then, years before she was even born. But he was still distressed over all of it. Natsumi then had to play the role of a makeshift wife to maintain his sanity. At many times over the years he nearly gave up his ambition altogether and believed for a time that he was going insane, but in the end he had enough of a lid on the Hinamizawa syndrome that he could suppress it as he saw fit. He truly believed that all of it was his punishment, and so would be a punishment that he was to take with him to the grave.

It had been a miracle that Keiichi had even lived to that point. Despite his physical weakness, he was still apparently capable of living on an extremely short amount of blood and had managed to do so for many years. But with his survival came the rather apparent threat of Okonogi and the various people he was able to employ to hunt Keiichi down. Satoshi had subdued every last one, but the end result was forced residence in the shoddy apartment that had likely been part of the reason their daughter had left them so early on.

In the end he kept on living to serve that one purpose. And in the end he achieved his goal. Not once did Natsumi question the legitimacy of it all, despite Satoshi's lack of faith fairly early on. But he stuck by him as well, likely determined to get his own vengeance granted to him.

Satoshi looked up at her, his face as stoic as ever. He had at some point reverted his hair to what it once appeared. She didn't quite remember when. Perhaps he had just come home with it like that one day, but it wasn't like she particularly remembered. Satoshi was another story – he never married, never dated anyone, and probably never so much as glanced at a woman over the course of the forty years. It would seem that his heart died with Shion. But he still persevered through the years despite it all.

"…He's asleep." He speaks rather hoarsely. He had caught wind of a disease himself, and apparently it caused his throat to nearly collapse in on itself. His voice was incredibly weak as if he had been smoking all his life despite never having touched a cigarette.

"I noticed." Natsumi, on the other hand, seemingly never aged a day. She was visibly older, but despite being nearly sixty she wasn't particularly old looking. She appeared to be in her twenties even to this day.

"Perhaps we should take care of it now?"

"You're not touching him until after I've gotten to say goodbye to him. You get it?"

"Right…Sorry." Satoshi was getting impatient. Or perhaps he was trying to convince himself that he still wanted to do was he was planning on doing.

At some point Keiichi woke with a coughing fit. One look at him would tell you that he had very little time remaining. As it was his voice was nearly lost. He could only make bits and pieces of sentences at this point. His mind and body were both deteriorating at a rate that it should have been forty years ago. Natsumi and Satoshi both knew that this wasn't really cancer – he was just simply dying. Not from old age, but rather from the whims of fate. It was as if now, that his mission was complete, that he was finally being allowed to rest.

"…"

"Morning. Oh, actually it's the afternoon now." Natsumi smiles at him.

Keiichi doesn't smile, simply because he can't efficiently.

"…When…" He only manages to utter a single word.

"You won't be in pain for much longer." Satoshi speaks. "It'll get easier to deal with soon."

"I…Don't…You…Wait…"

It took a few seconds but eventually Natsumi figured out what he was trying to say.

"We're not doing anything yet, okay?" Her voice was somewhat distressed, although only slightly at this point.

"Sato…shi…"

"I'm not doing anything to you. Not until your woman says her farewell." He stands. "I suggest you get this over with. It seems he's losing the will to live."

"He's not losing the will. He's just afraid that you won't get your vengeance." Natsumi speaks somewhat coldly. Satoshi does not respond in the slightest and walks off to the side.

Natsumi draws closer to him, lightly touching his face.

"I'm sorry. He's just really impatient…But are you sure?"

Keiichi tries to nod, moving his head somewhat slightly.

Natsumi smiles. "…I had a feeling you'd say something like that. I suppose you…really want to see them, don't you? It has been a long time, so I think I can understand."

Keiichi doesn't make any sort of reaction, and so she took that as a confirmation of what she was saying.

She stared at him, somewhat longingly.

Eventually, due to a series of mixed emotions piling up within her, she finally breaks down.

She whispers to him. "Don't leave me…Not like this…I won't be able to go where you're going, no matter how hard I try. I don't…I don't want to be cut off from you like that. I don't think I could take it."

Keiichi tries to make some sort of movement, but ends up just shaking his free hand. That was a sign that he wanted something to write with. He still had relatively full control of his hands, although his arms were incredibly weak and moved about as rarely as his jaw. Natsumi reached for the pen and pad off to the side that he had already used multiple times.

He starts writing, although the end result is messy. She can still read it, however.

_That's not true_

_I'll wait for you_

_You won't live alone _

_So that you can spend forever alone_

_You'll see_

She had no choice but to trust what he was saying. She tries to smile in affirmation but she can't bring herself to.

"I have a bit of my own unfinished business…You'll have to wait until then."

_I'll do it_

_I'll be waiting there_

_With everyone_

"…Keiichi."

He doesn't write anything past that point.

"My role is finished. You've done enough living. So now you can go rest. You can go rest with the people you love. So do it…I'll be along one day. But you're the one who deserves the rest you're going to get…I'm okay living in darkness for awhile. You've been living that way for years and years. So I can share some of it. I don't want you to wait for me, okay? I don't want to do that to you. You understand?"

Another confirmation.

"Good…So you can finally sleep. You've got quite the number of people waiting for you."

"I…you…"

Natsumi smiles before gently kissing him. "I love you too."

In that moment she stepped away and Satoshi returned to the room. Natsumi turns away, unable to watch any further. She leaves the room and allows Satoshi to complete his end of the bargain.

"Wait." Satoshi calls out to her. She doesn't turn around but stops moving. Satoshi places what seemed to be a small piece of paper from Keiichi's pad in her open palm. "He wants you to read that."

She brings the paper up to her eyes so she can read it.

_Keiichi Maebara will go to Hinamizawa_

_But The End Dreamer will wait for you_

_Forever_

"He's dying." She whispers. "Yet he still finds the time to be poetic."

She leaves the room without another word. She can't allow him to see her in the state she would be in. She wanted his last image of her to be that of her smiling. Not the opposite.

Satoshi stand above him, his sword at his side.

"Sato…shi…do..it.."

But he does nothing. He simply stands there and looks down at him with his stoic expression.

Keiichi becomes visually distressed. He was doubtlessly confused as to why Satoshi wasn't doing anything.

"Do…it…now…!"

But Satoshi does not move. Keiichi's vision swims slightly. He is likely down to the wire.

Satoshi unsheathes the blade slightly. The shining steel pokes out only slightly. But he still stands there, unmoving.

And then he smiles. Satoshi smiles.

"My sister and all those who you wronged suffered for mere moments as they died. You have suffered an even worse pain day by day for forty years. I have had my revenge."

"…?"

"I won't be joining you quite just yet. But I need you to let Shion know that I'll be coming for her one of these days. Just tell her that. Can you do that for me?"

Keiichi gives his confirmation.

"Very well then…You may rest in peace. You've done what you lived to do. I never thought you were capable, but yet here you are. You've earned my respect and my forgiveness. So go. Go to them. Don't keep them waiting."

Satoshi turned away and slowly walked out of the room. Keiichi continued to stare up at the ceiling. He wondered what Satoshi stood by him for if he hadn't intended to kill him. Perhaps he had just been waiting to see if Keiichi would be a man of his word. Perhaps from the very start, many years ago, he was intending on doing this. But regardless Satoshi had let him live, and so he would die a natural death.

But that sort of death didn't suit him. But apparently Satoshi believed that it did.

He could feel everything around him fading away. He had already lost all feeling. He would stop breathing at any moment.

He wasn't proud of his life. But he did what had to be done. He'd accomplished his goal, even if it had taken him forty years. With everything resolved, he believed that all was well.

He stared at the entrance to his little room. Neither Satoshi nor Natsumi would walk through that entrance to greet him ever again. He had seen the last of them both. He secretly hoped one of them would appear before him one last time, but in the end he didn't think it would matter. He would see them again at some point. He was almost certain of that.

He closes his eyes. He finds himself enveloped in a warm white light.

And finds himself in a vast garden. A garden that stretched on for as far as the eye could see. A garden of roses of all colors, complemented by a gazebo surrounded by bright red roses that were different from the others. He had somehow appeared in a beautiful place. He had then decided that he was in heaven. And this was what heaven consisted of.

He finds himself standing amidst this garden, staring at the beauty around him.

Suddenly, he feels a presence nearby. He turns around to find himself face to face with a rather peculiar looking man with bright red hair, arranged in an equally as peculiar way. He was wearing a white suit jacket, equally as white dress pants, and what appeared to be some sort of a black cape with a golden hemming. The man simply smiled at him, making for a rather awkward scenario.

"Welcome." He spoke.

"Where am I?" Keiichi is initially surprised to find that he could speak perfectly normally now. More importantly –

His wheelchair was nowhere in sight. He was standing and walking. It was so odd that he didn't notice immediately, but for that time it was as if walking was perfectly natural for him.

"You're home."

"I'm sorry…What?"

"What, you don't recognize your home?"

"I've never been in a place like this before. I'm not sure what you mean by that."

"Oh, that's right… Hm… How to deal with you…Ah hell, I'm in a good mood so I won't be a prick about it."

The man turns around, his cape swinging with him.

"You see, the Golden Land is big enough that we could accommodate a village or two, so…"

He flicks the cape with his arm, much like a matador would a capote.

And off in the distance he could see it.

And he realized where he was. He was at the road that led to that village off in the distance.

He was in Hinamizawa.

"Go on. You've got quite the crowd waiting for you."

Without another thought he went down the pathway. He found himself traversing the familiar road. Eventually he found his way to the entrance –

And then he saw them. All of them. They were all there, every single one of them standing there, waiting for him.

He was almost instantaneously brought to tears. They were all there. And they were all alive. None of them looked at him with any sort of disdain – they all wanted to welcome him back to Hinamizawa.

Standing the closest to him, only a few feet before him, were Rena and Mion.

They were both standing there, as pleased as could be.

"Kei-chan, are you going to gape at us all day?" Mion speaks with her usual flare.

He didn't seem to want to react. He was simply too awe struck to do anything.

"If you were him you'd be doing the same thing." Rena chimes in with her usual exuberance.

But Keiichi did make some sort of noise.

"I'm…I'm…"

Mion punches him in the arm.

"If I hear one apology come out of your mouth I'll peel it off."

"Mii-chan…That's a bit scary."

"I don't care! One apology, and I swear…"

"Rena." Keiichi murmured. "…Are you…okay?"

"I'm fine… We're all fine." Their eyes met, and in that instant Keiichi resumed crying his eyes out.

He fell to his knees. This was all too much. And all too sudden. If this was some sort of trick he wasn't sure what he would do.

Suddenly he felt a rather familiar pat on his head. At his side was Rika.

"It's all okay. You're home, Keiichi. That's all that matters."

"Satoshi's a bit late though…" Shion spoke ever so slightly sadly off from where she was standing.

"…He said…He said he'd be here one of these days…" Keiichi tried to speak, given how he had suddenly remembered Satoshi's last request.

"He's going to take is sweet time, isn't he…? Eh, I can wait a bit longer."

A few moments later, Mion, who had been relatively silent for quite some time, knelt down in front of him.

"You see? It's all over. We all made it here. So Hinamizawa finally gets to come back to life. Because without you here, it just wouldn't be any fun."

Keiichi's eyes met hers, and in the moment they did she pulls him close to her and kisses him as fully as she could. She parts her lips slightly, whispers his name, and continues the kiss. In that moment Keiichi could simply feel it. All was forgiven. There was nothing but pure feelings between them now. It was how things should have been. But it was still the way things were now.

"…Right. Right here, Hinamizawa revives…And it won't be like the old one." Keiichi spoke softly when Mion broke away from him.

"Right…So are you ready, Keiichi?" Mion asks him.

Keiichi finally stands. And so he enters that new Hinamizawa with those that are closest to him.

The man with the golden cape looks down upon what has transpired before him. Surely, this man was like him. Surely, he had suffered for years and had finally come to the point in his life where he could be reunited with those important to him. Without a doubt, this was the rest this man deserved. For despite his great sin he lived to the point where all those he wronged could forgive him. There is no greater repentance than that.

Indeed. All was well.

* * *

><p><em><strong>Author's Note<strong>_

And so ends Case of the End Dreamer. I'll just go ahead and say that despite the tone of this last section that this is actually _a really bad ending_ for _everyone_ involved. You might be able to reason out why. Especially if you're familiarized enough with how Umineko handles this stuff. (Also, yeah, Saya is stuck in a time loop.)

But yeah…I really need to clear some stuff up, don't I?

At this point I'm going to first address the thought process that you were "intended" to take for each of the primary (and really the only solvable) mysteries of the plot.

For the first story chapter, you have some unreliable narration from Rai, who later turns out to be Satoshi. This was actually not reasonable until you determined that End Dreamer was Keiichi. In the first section of the solution chapter you are told explicitly that nothing he ever said about Miyumi/Shion was a lie.

This lets you come to the conclusion that Miyumi was Shion and not Mion, given the bit of hidden major plot point in the non-descriptive sex scene. Furthermore were the side stories that talked about nothing but the twins and Keichi's various affairs with them. The only exception being the Umineko prequel chapter. But there is a line in there about Shion, thus making details about her the most commonly occurring in the stories. So with the stuff in the main chapter and the side stories that play by their own rules you can come to that conclusion. Probably. Hopefully. Maybe.

The second story chapter is a _lot _less interesting. The only thing you were supposed to get out of that was that Yoko was not attacked by Shion but was instead attacked by multiple people. The only indication of this in the side stories were the appearances of multiple killers. That's it. Really. The second chapter was mainly set up for the third.

The third story chapter is pretty much the most convoluted thing I ever came up with. It was actually a whole lot worse to begin with, but it got better as I rewrote that chapter a million times. Basically you were supposed to associate Saya with Hanyuu because Hanyuu is revealed as the Unreliable Narrator in the story that came with that chapter. She lied without ever really telling you that she was lying. Saya does the same thing – Satoshi actually tells you briefly that he lied once, but Saya doesn't at all. The first Wrap Party was pretty much there to make that clear/slightly less ambiguous. There. There's your connection.

As for the whole rational and irrational impossibilities thing, that was more or less more Umineko pandering (the whole "it's magic but it probably isn't" thing). I tried to tie together the supernatural aspects of the two and ended up going for a mixture of things. The Devil Theory thing is actually entirely symbolic. It's more or less just representation of how dangerous one's fears are and how someone can be brought to act out in extreme ways.

Lastly, about Keiichi. There are three of him in this story: The End Dreamer, The Real One, and Keichi. Keichi being Astaroth, who was Keiichi's dark side. We never hear from the real one ever. Just clearing that up. (For the Type Moon fans, an easier way to describe Astaroth is to consider him like Nanaya Shiki. A fake darker half of the original thing.)

Anyhow, I'd like to thank more or less all of you that read this story and especially to those of you that reviewed. If you didn't review but still liked it then I suppose that's all good in the end. I honestly didn't think I'd even get one consistent reader but it seemed like I had at least several so thanks for that. Seriously.

So, going into the future, I'm probably going to stop writing for a bit and start _reading_ some of the fics on this site. Can you believe it?

But really, I don't think I'm going to dump any more time into this story. The plot line is finished. I _might_, however unnecessary it might be, add a "what really happened 100% for sure in Hinamizawa" chapter...

B-But I want 30 reviews first…P-Please?

Anyway, so there. Almost a year since I posted it but not quite. I suppose it had a good run. That's all I have to say about that. Now go read something else.


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